As a result of this, most high school seniors are hamstrung in their efforts to analyze controversial issues in our society. The notion that opportunity might be unequal in America, that not everyone has the 'power to rise in the world,' is anathema to textbooks authors, and to many teachers as well. A certain etiquette coerces us all into speaking in respectful tones about the past, especially when we're passing on Our Heritage to our young. It perpetuates what might be called a Disney version of history. . . Our children end up without realistic role models to inspire them.
Students also develop no understanding of causality in history.
Students would see that speakers modify their ideas to appease and appeal to different audiences, so we cannot simply take their statements literally. And as they watched Lincoln struggle with himself to apply America's democratic principles across the color line, students would see how ideas can develop and a person can grow. Having watched Northerners, black and white, go south to help blacks win civil rights in the 1960's, today's textbook authors display more sympathy for Northerners who worked with Southern blacks during Reconstruction. Surely they need to understand that top managers of clothing firms, who used to make fifty times what their American employees made, now make 1,500 times what their Malaysian workers earn. Surely it is wrong for our history textbooks and teachers to withhold the historical information that might prompt and inform discussion of these trends.