Sam Niu ’15, Josh Oswiany ’15: In late September, a Jefferson County high school in Denver experienced a student walk-out in response to the school board’s attempts to focus the curriculum of the AP United States History classes on “positive aspects” of American history. Charles Bryant, Chair of the Upper School History Department, explained his understanding of the Denver school board’s view, saying, “the criticism that the AP standard might face…is that it’s not patriotic enough, that it’s focusing too much on ways in which America didn’t live up to a variety of ideas, so the Denver school board voted to replace the AP standards with their own that promoted patriotism.” As a result, the students protested, with one student saying to Cleveland.com, “We believe that if they restrict that content [which is taught in class] then we’re not going to get the education that we think we should.”
Describing the view of the critics of the AP standard, Bryant said, “The critics say that the new curriculum doesn’t do enough to promote patriotism, specifically in a concept called American Exceptionalism, which is the idea that we, in the United States, some say by a God-given right, are superior or are a model to the rest of the world… This idea of Exceptionalism has been around a long time, it’s just that some people believe that we should be teaching kids that America is exceptional, whereas others believe that we should just be teaching kids that America believes it’s exceptional.”
In response to this Jefferson County school’s decision, Philipp Humann ’16, a student currently taking the AP US History class at EA, said, “You shouldn’t gloss over the facts, but I feel like when you’re studying the Revolutionary War times, teachers make it seem like Americans were overreacting. I think it could be a little more patriotic, but I haven’t had any problem with how the curriculum’s been taught this year.”
Taylor Gary ’15, having already taken the course last year, added, “I believe that our current curriculum is much better [than that proposed in Denver] because a more patriotic curriculum might give an incomplete portrayal of American history. This bias could affect the perception of certain aspects of history such as colonization, slavery, imperial policies…and more. It is important for students to have a full understanding of US history rather than a narrow minded, patriotic view.”
In terms of actual changes to the APUSH exam, Bryant noted, “They’ve added a short answer section and they have what they call revised standards, so they have a more detailed outline of some of the things that they want you to cover,” to which Dr. Delvin Dinkins, Head of Upper School added, “From what I understand, they’re trying to streamline the content a little bit more. Right now there’s a focus on a lot of facts, and they’re very, very broad so I think the emphasis is how do we get students to know bodies of knowledge.”
Dinkins commented on the dispute over patriotism as well, stating, “Patriotism in it of itself isn’t a bad thing…as long as changes aren’t such that we lose sight of how other countries perceive America in American history. American history is about America, but it’s also about how we’ve interacted with various other parts of the world, so if being more patriotic means cutting off that angle, then I would find that to be a disadvantage. If it means emphasizing that and really going after it, then I see it as a positive.” In his own opinion, Bryant stated, “I care most about my students learning to write and think critically, so for me, patriotism in the curriculum is a whole separate issue…I want to teach my students history as it happens and have them write and think critically about that. I don’t want to teach them a particular viewpoint.”