How do you teach America's 'sins?' NC board still at odds over social studies standards T. Keung Hui, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) Feb. 3—North Carolina education leaders are struggling with how to balance teaching students about both the nation's historical sins and its accomplishments. The State Board of Education will vote Thursday on new K-12 social studies standards that include language such as having teachers discuss racism, discrimination and the perspectives of marginalized groups. Republican board members have complained that the standards are unbalanced, while some Democrats don't think they go far enough. In an effort to bridge the divide, GOP State Superintendent Catherine Truitt presented Wednesday a new preamble to the standards that say they must discuss "hard truths" such as Native American oppression, anti-Catholicism and Jim Crow. But she said the standards must also teach how the U.S. Constitution created the world's first organized democracy since ancient Rome and how the U.S. went on to end legalized slavery.