For the past half-decade, amid overheated rhetoric contesting the very essence of national identity, Americans have been subjected to competing caricatures of the country’s history classrooms.

Developing informed citizens. Making connections from the past to the present. Presenting multiple perspectives on critical events in history. These rank as the top instructional goals of U.S. middle ...

With a curriculum that includes slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, two world wars and the Civil Rights Movement, American history teachers are used to venturing into emotionally charged subjects.