The September 28 massacre in Guinea, Tiananmen Square, the Shell House Massacre in Johannesburg and the Israeli bombings of Gaza are just a few examples of horrific attacks on foreign citizens that American students learn about in high school history classes. It is common to learn about the brutality and violence that civilians from other countries endure at the hands of their governments. History classes in the United States are filled with the mistakes of other nations, but they often leave out the most recent failings in our own country.In 1970, four unarmed Kent State University students were killed, while nine more were injured, when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd protesting the war in Vietnam. Despite the horrifying circumstances of this shooting, and the fact that schoolchildren in other countries, like the U.K., hear about this shooting in their modern history classes, it is not mentioned in American curriculums, nor is it commonly referenced in modern civil discourse.

Americans pride ourselves on being a nation of freedom and civil liberty. We were founded on the premise of escaping tyranny and striving to be better. Yet, we cannot even admit to our own shortcomings and teach our young students so they have the opportunity to do better in the future.It is important to teach not only of our successes, but also our failures. American citizens have the right to learn of our whole history. There seems to be a divide in that anything in the last 50 years is romanticized. In the news, we hear of the controversial issues and the brutality of current events. Yet, when it comes to the history books, there still seems to be a lot that is left out.

The media is a great resource to learn about current events and form your own opinion from them. This will not help future students, however, who may be very young or not born yet at the time that it occurred.History classes are meant to give the good, the bad and the ugly, whether it was a proud moment in our history or not. Censorship in the media is a constant debate and issue, but no one seems to be concerned with the issue of censorship in history books.