Recently, the College Board course AP United States History, commonly referred to as APUSH, has gotten scrutinized for teaching only the bad things of American history and ignored many American ‘heroes.’ State governments have gone so far as to ban the entire course in their state (Colorado, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, etc.)

Critics complain that the course teaches anti-American, pro-terrorist concepts by ignoring many influential figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Ben Franklin, and dwelling on the negative parts of our “great” history.

The claims are just preposterous. This course is designed to foster critical thinking skills to better help prepare students for college, something the critics don’t quite understand (maybe they could use a few AP courses themselves.) The College Board has a framework that doesn’t specifically state what the teacher is to teach, but an overview of what will be on the exam this coming May. This allows a teacher greater flexibility in what they teach and which topics they decide to go in depth.

Banning the entire course blows my mind. This is in clear violation of the students right to education, a concept I learned in my AP Government class.

As a student currently enrolled in the APUSH course, I haven’t had terrorist thoughts. I haven’t lost any of my national pride. I haven’t become depressed by learning about some of the negatives this country has done or experienced in its short 250 years of existence. I have, however, learned and improved my knowledge on how to analyze different types of documents. I’ve learned and improved on how to write an effective thesis statement. I’ve learned and improved on bringing outside sources into answers. These advanced placement courses are intended to improve our knowledge. We aren’t little kids anymore, so there is no need to sugarcoat our history anymore. The students in these type of classes are the ones who want to expand their knowledge and want to prepare themselves for college level courses.

History is history, and should be taught completely, including the good and the bad. No course will promote terrorist thoughts or inhibit national pride. They will, however, give us a better understanding of what a typical college class is like.

Denying a student the right to learn is an irony in and of itself. The critics are angry about how it makes America look bad in the eye of a student. However, they don’t realize that cutting funds for a class makes them look bad. I have lost hope in America through this process. Not from the content of this class, but by the way they criticized the course.