Of course, if you went to school in the northern United States, you learned the Civil War was about slavery disguised as state's rights. But yeah, 5th through

Of course, if you went to school in the northern United States, you learned the Civil War was about slavery disguised as state's rights. But yeah, 5th through 10th grade history, there was no nuance, just "this is what happened, this is History, this is the textbook, this will be on the test, the end." A handful of excellent grade 9-12 teachers would have you do primary source research[1], and there you might get some conflicting sources, but you just discarded the sources that didn't work with your thesis topic. (See how this works? Thesis first, then sources...) It was only once I was in college that we really got into some of the nuance of multiple sources and working from the ground up instead of the top down. [1] Specific examples that I recall: did an astronaut biography in 5th grade, I interviewed my grandparents on 1930s Depression-era life in 9th grade; I did a primary sources (newspaper on microfilm) paper in my college sophomore year (14th grade) on the The Rainhill Locomotive Trials of 1829 in London, England.