Title: U.S. history: How teaching America's past varies across the country - CBS News
Headings: 50 states, 50 different ways of teaching America's past
50 states, 50 different ways of teaching America's past
Slavery and civil rights movement
Cause of the Civil War
Racism and white supremacy
Politics and other challenges
Role of teachers

Content: Meanwhile, Texas expects students taking a high school sociology elective course to be able to "explain instances of institutional racism in American society." But it does not directly mention institutional racism in its mandatory U.S. history classes. Just Massachusetts and Maryland mention the word "white supremacy," in their state standards, even though Kendi said it's important students learn about the issue. "That's American history," he said. Politics and other challenges
There is no national curriculum for teaching United States history. And Heafner said the process for adopting state standards, especially in a field like social studies that wrestles with the history of racism or white supremacy, can be politicized. "There are ideologies and beliefs that tend to guide the decisions that are made at the policy level in states to determine what can be included and what cannot be included in standards," she said. " Given that nature it does not surprise me that the language is not present because many policy makers are unwilling to tackle those hard issues." When asked why change has been slow when it comes to textbooks and the state standards in Texas, Ellis, the chair of the Texas State Board of Education said: " I think (Texas), as well as a lot of states in the South, were behind the times in coming to change that process," he said.