History textbooks in schools often skip over the uncomfortable parts of our national past, and I think that's a mistake. If we only teach the heroic narratives, we're not preparing students for a world where leaders and countries make morally complex choices. For example, my high school spent a whole semester on the Civil War but never mentioned the economic motivations behind Reconstruction's failure. Shouldn't a full historical picture include the failures and contradictions, not just the victories? Omitting them might make students cynical later when they discover the gaps on their own.