by Jordan Hill

Like many of us, America has a history—some good, bad and very ugly.

That’s the beauty of education. As students, we deserve to know the unbiased truth about what our country has been through. After all, history is known to repeat itself.

Oklahoma lawmakers are pushing to change the state’s AP History curriculum. They are pushing to involve more speeches from Raegan and George W. Bush (Republican presidents) and no speeches from the recent Democratic presidents. The bill would also force students to learn the Ten Commandments.

Students depend on teachers to educate them on topics that are necessary to understand their country. The information presented to students should be facts. There is no room for biased political or religious views in the classroom. Giving students the history of America should include the Democrats and Republicans.

AP History should include all aspects of our country’s history. It should not be inhibited by the personal views of a politician.

Republican representative Dan Fisher, the author of the bill, believes that current AP History curriculum “emphasizes what is bad about America” and never mentions the concept of American exceptionalism.

We have to see the “bad” that America went through in order to learn from mistakes and discourage the same mistakes from happening again.

America’s past isn’t pretty, and Fisher’s past is likely the same way. Of course he would want to keep that out of the public eye, but how are citizens expected to make informed political and life decisions without knowing the whole truth?