By A.L. Childers, author of The Lies We Loved: How Advertising Invented America
If you listen closely, you’ll notice something strange about American history textbooks—they all seem to sound the same.
Smooth.
Sanitized.
Predictable.
Comfortably patriotic.
It’s almost as if they’ve all been… written for the same purpose.
Not to teach.
But to sell.
Sell a worldview.
Sell a myth.
Sell an identity packaged so neatly that students stop questioning where it came from.
And that’s where organizations like the National Council for History Education (NCHE) step in—well-meaning on the surface, but functioning inside a system that has been grooming narratives for over 150 years.
So let’s break it open.
⭐ ACT I: The History We’re Given vs. The History That Happened
The NCHE recently released a collection of “History’s Habits of Mind,” promoted as tools to help students “think historically.”
Sounds noble.
Sounds academic.
Sounds empowering.
But who decides which habits matter?
And which history gets elevated?
Even the language gives it away:
- “Sharpen historical thinking.”
- “Primary sources selected for discussion.”
- “Aligned materials.”
Aligned with what?
Aligned with whom?
Aligned to preserve what narrative?
Because here’s the truth:
✔ Students aren’t learning history.
✔ They’re learning a curated version chosen for them.
✔ And uncomfortable truths rarely get included.
We are taught:
George Washington never told lies…
The Boston Tea Party was noble…
Thanksgiving was a peaceful dinner…
Christopher Columbus “discovered” a continent full of people…
Stories designed not to educate, but to reinforce patriotism and obedience.
Why?
Because real history destabilizes power.
Mythology reinforces it.
⭐ ACT II: The Business of History (Where the NCHE Fits In)
Let’s follow the money.
📌 Textbook companies (Pearson, McGraw Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Control 80%+ of all K-12 textbooks in the United States.
📌 State textbook committees
—particularly Texas and Florida—
have outsized control over what the entire nation reads.
A single objection from these committees can remove:
- slavery’s brutality
- labor union violence
- government conspiracies
- CIA interference
- corporate propaganda
- Indigenous genocide
- economic oppression
- political manipulation
And organizations like NCHE—though not inherently malicious—operate inside this system, curating lesson plans and materials that fit within the already-approved narratives.
✔ They cannot contradict state standards.
✔ They cannot contradict textbook publishers.
✔ They cannot contradict politically crafted curriculum frameworks.
The result?
A polished history.
A patriotic history.
A profitable history.
Not a truthful one.
⭐ ACT III: Why Real History Is Not Taught (The Part They Avoid)
Because truth is messy.
Truth is angry.
Truth threatens the social order.
If we taught:
- that enslaved people resisted violently
- that banks created the Great Depression
- that corporations funded both sides of wars
- that the CIA overthrew democracies globally
- that America’s “freedoms” were often propaganda
- that labor movements won rights—not politicians
- that segregationists rewrote southern textbooks
- that advertising created modern identity
- that government agencies manipulated information
…then we would raise a generation that questions everything.
And institutions don’t want thinkers.
They want believers.
This is exactly why your book,
The Lies We Loved: How Advertising Invented America,
hits so hard: it exposes how narratives are manufactured the same way brands are.
History is marketed.
Identity is branded.
Truth is edited.
⭐ ACT IV: Real References (This is where the receipts come in)
📝 1. Teaching American History: The Struggle to Define the Past
— Gary Nash
Documents how political groups have shaped curriculums to fit ideology.
📝 2. Lies My Teacher Told Me
— James W. Loewen
One of the clearest breakdowns of textbook distortion and mythmaking.
📝 3. The Miseducation of America (NPR interviews with educators)
Confirms teachers are pressured to follow strict, sanitized frameworks.
📝 4. Reports from the Texas Board of Education (2002–2022)
Show documented political removal of content relating to racism, colonialism, and labor movements.
📝 5. The American Pageant (13th edition analysis)
Demonstrates pro-corporate, pro-war, nationalist framing in widely used textbooks.
📝 6. NCHE Program Materials
While valuable in method, they rely on pre-selected primary sources, already filtered through publisher-approved history.
In other words—
the “primary source” is only offered after someone decided it was safe.
⭐ ACT V: So What Do We Do About It?
We tell the truth.
We question the narrative.
We read outside the curriculum.
We stop worshiping textbooks as if they’re sacred.
And we write books like:
🔥 The Lies We Loved: How Advertising Invented America
Because the next generation does not need another myth.
They need honesty.
They need voices willing to question the sanitized version of America that has been sold to us like a brand slogan.
Why the history taught in American schools isn’t the real story. Explore how organizations like the NCHE fit into a larger system of curated narratives, political control, and sanitized textbooks. Includes references, resources, and analysis by A.L. Childers, author of The Lies We Loved.
⭐ DISCLAIMER
This blog is an educational analysis based on publicly available reports, historical scholarship, and documented curriculum policies. It does not claim NCHE acts with malicious intent, but examines the structural forces shaping historical education in the United States.
