The Effects of Learning About the Historical Experiences of Minority Groups Among American High School Students in a United States History Class.

The Indiana State Board of Education has worked hard to create American history standards that reflect Indiana's commitment to US history education. These standards emphasize the important roles of minority groups throughout history, and convey and promote the importance of learning about the ongoing struggle to realize the ideals of the USA as a constitutional republic. While the standards focus on Western civilization as the main source of American ideology, the State of Indiana also expects students to be able to analyze the constantly changing relationships between dominant groups and minority groups both in the past and within the context of contemporary US. In the spirit of the Board of Education standards, special attention is needed to shine a light on the story of racism against Japanese Americans before the internment camp issue during World War II. Students need to develop an understanding of past issues and be able to relate them to their historical and political accounts of the events in order to be able to fully understand the connections between American political policies during World War II, and their effects from the Japanese-American perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]