No, this should not be up for debate.

That it nevertheless is testifies eloquently to the need for good teaching.

I’m not that old, and I did not learn about the horrors of slavery in school. I learned a little bit about how the system operated, and a few unpleasant facts that made me slightly uncomfortable.

Then Roots came on television. Remember the impact that miniseries had? I remember feeling shattered emotionally. I remember asking myself how I could have grown into my teens without knowing all this already.

I remember feeling resentful that the history of my own country had been withheld from me.

That history continues to be withheld from students, and it must not be. We must understand where we came from.