Truth and Historical Amendment: Critical Mending in the Classroom

This article examines how educators can support students in engaging honestly and agentively with contested histories through a practice the author calls critical historical mending. Drawing on the JusticexDesign (JxD) framework and the work of artist Titus Kaphar, the piece describes a classroom project in which students studied Civil War monuments and reimagined them to surface suppressed narratives and conflicting truths. By situating historical inquiry within contemporary debates about public memory, monuments, and power, the work invites students to examine how design expresses and obscures history. Through art, research, and making, students are encouraged to acknowledge struggle, amplify marginalized voices, and take a thoughtful stance without resolving tension prematurely. The article positions critical historical mending as a pedagogical approach that values historical honesty, agency, and ethical engagement with the past.