Final answer:
U.S. history books often fail to provide comprehensive coverage on slavery, leading to superficial treatment of the subject. Suggestions to improve education on slavery include expanding curriculum perspectives, addressing institutional racism, and including a more balanced approach in history education.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center's study, one major failing of U.S. history books is their lack of comprehensive coverage on the subject of slavery, leading to a superficial treatment of the topic. Moreover, the study suggests that the difficulty in teaching slavery and a tendency to personalize government figures like Abraham Lincoln can obscure the complex and harsh realities of the nation's history. Textbooks may reinforce certain narratives while neglecting others, for example, by excluding black perspectives or sanitizing the violence of miseducation and institutional racism.
Students infrequently learn a full history of slavery in school due to sanitization of historical violence, omission of black perspectives, and a focus on more palatable historical narratives. Faculty segregation and a curriculum that lacks mention of African Americans contribute to a miseducated understanding of history. Suggestions for improving education on slavery include incorporating more diverse perspectives, addressing institutional racism, and including texts that confront oppressive aspects of history while celebrating those who have overcome them.
In Stewart's essay, suggestions for improvement include balancing difficult topics with acknowledgment of progress, integrating a wider spectrum of primary sources such as autobiographies, testimonies, newspapers, and abolitionist records, and focusing on the lived experiences and contributions of African Americans throughout history.