Finally, there’s some good news from the battlefront in the cultural war over teaching history at our nation’s schools. Notably, it seems most people aren’t really itching for a fight after all.

That ray of hope comes from a new national study that challenges the widely held belief that our country is sharply divided over its views on teaching race and history. As reported this week by our news affiliate Colorado Politics, the study found that Americans, though divided along ideological lines, tend to regard the other side of the political fence as holding views wholly divergent from their own when, in fact, they share much common ground.

The yearlong survey – titled “Defusing the History Wars: Finding Common Ground in Teaching America’s National Story” and commissioned by the group More In Common – found a majority of Americans prefer the teaching of American history in ways that include “both the inspiring and the shameful.” In other words, neither focusing only on the negative nor attempting to whitewash it.

It’s tonic for Colorado, where battles at times have reached fever pitch in school districts and at the state level over teaching the likes of critical race theory, institutional racism and gender identity. Parents and advocacy groups have faced off with one another and with education policymakers on school boards and the State Board of Education.

The More in Common study uncovered a “perception gap” that lies “between what we imagine an opposing group believes and what that group actually believes.”

According to the study, Republicans underestimate Democrats’ commitment to celebrating American achievements and its story of progress, while Democrats underestimate Republicans’ willingness to recognize failures and the roles that racial, ethnic or other minority groups played in making America better.

As an example, 95% of Democrats and 93% of Republicans responding to the survey agreed, “Americans have a responsibility to learn from our past and fix our mistakes.” Yet, those same Democrats believed that only 35% of Republicans feel that way. Republican respondents said only 56% of Democrats hold that view.

An overwhelming majority of Republicans, 93%, said Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks should be presented to students as examples of Americans who fought for equality. Yet, the Democrats in the survey believed that only 38% of Republicans held that view. Meanwhile, 87% of Democrats believed George Washington and Abraham Lincoln should be admired for their roles in American history, yet that would have come as a surprise to the survey’s Republicans – who thought only 42% of Democrats felt that way.

Underscoring the degree to which people’s perceptions of one another’s views seem to be driven more by stereotypes than by interactions, the study found that unaffiliated voters’ perceptions of where Republicans and Democrats stand on the same issues largely tracked with how members of the two parties regard each other. That reveals a “false divergence” – a “dangerous level of overstatement,” the study’s authors said.

None of which is to discount the fact that elected and other officials who debate these issues at the policymaking level really do have fundamental disagreements. There are, after all, some radical and terribly misguided ideas proposed for “realigning” curriculum. And as we’ve contended here before, the fights over some of these issues are worth fighting.

But rank-and-file parents and the rest of the public aren’t necessarily as far apart on those same issues – and it’s helpful for us to know that.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board