Professors, students react to AP U.S. History debate
1 imageJohn Roark
Audience members listen to Dr. Maurice Daniels speak about the history of desegregation at the University of Georgia during the "In His Memory, In Her Honor" memorial in Athens, GA Thursday 27 February, 2014. In 1961 Dr. Hamilton E. Holmes & Mrs. Charlayne Hunter-Gault began their work desegregating the University of Georgia making their way as the first black students at the university. Photo by John Roark/ @johnroarkmedia.com
Patrick Adcock @PatrickAdcock2 |
Oklahoma lawmakers caused a stir recently by threatening to cut funding to Advanced Placement U.S. history courses in their state. At the heart of the debate was whether or not the AP course was ‘patriotic’ enough.
Now that debate has come to Georgia.
Senator William Ligon from Brunswick has challenged the framework for APUSH, arguing that the course is biased toward the smaller players in American history. Among other examples, he cites the Black Panthers as having too prominent a place in the teachings in relation to other figures of the Civil Rights movement, such as Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ligon argues that the Black Panthers were not part of the mainstream and that more space should instead be given to discussing the ideals of the Founding Fathers or the role that religion had in forming this country.
Ligon has filed a resolution asking other members of the Georgia Assembly to support him in this debate.
Governor Nathan Deal and Georgia's School Superintendent Richard Woods have also come out in support of a review of the course.
Teachers and students meanwhile have largely been supportive of the program in Georgia. They view APUSH as an integral part of students’ educations.
Montgomery Wolf, a lecturer in the UGA history department, is well-versed in APUSH. Wolf had a small part in helping to create the curriculum of the program and has graded AP exams for the last 5 years.
“Learning history is very, very important for high school and college students,” Wolf said. “Good history classes don’t teach history as facts, but rather teach history as interpretation.”
Wolf encourages her students to look at the primary documents and come to their own conclusions. However, it can be tough to maintain an objective approach when teaching history.
“Most historians accept the fact that when one studies, interprets and writes history, it is impossible to remain entirely objective,” Wolf said.
Nevertheless, the more controversial aspects of American history shouldn’t be dismissed in favor of the more positive parts.
“History classes must give at least as much attention to our national failures as to our victories,” Wolf said. “How can we learn from our mistakes if we do not know and understand our mistakes?”
Anthony Madonna, an associate professor in the political science department, makes teaching history a large part of his courses so that students are well-rounded enough to discuss the same issues that the Founding Fathers faced.
“Knowing at a broad level the nuance of these issues is really useful, Madonna said. “There are very few black or white issues discussed during the founding.”
As a whole, history cannot be presented to students in a black and white fashion. It’s important for students to know that there are no easy answers.
“Even among friends of mine with whom I agree on a lot of issues we’re constantly debating ‘We need to spend more time talking about this weird aspect of history’”, Madonna said. “It’s very hard to get away from that.”
Students are similarly protective of APUSH, seeing the benefits that the program has given to them.
Michelle Easley, a Spanish major from Decatur, graduated high school with credit from APUSH that translated to credit at UGA.
“I think it was helpful in my understanding of our government and social climate,” Easley said. “APUSH presents history in an accurate light because many historical problems are still relevant today.”
There is an online petition on Change.org that students and teachers can sign to protest the Senate resolution that would seek to change College Board standards.
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