Neil Bates and Robert Bowry have chosen to tackle the issue of curriculum coherence by including local history, both as starting point for new students joining the school in Year 7 and as a golden thread running throughout their Key Stage 3 curriculum. In this article they explain the rationale for their plans, focusing not only on the powerful…

Ordinary citizens and elected officials struggle with the unsettled nature of history and America's problematic racial past in particular. Textbooks--the most common curricular resource in the discipline--contribute by emphasizing singular names (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr.), curious objects (e.g., Rosa Parks's bus seat), and ahistorical notions…