What if one of the most important things public schools can teach us isn't what to think, but how to wrestle with complexity?

In this episode of Public School Kids, Erika explores one of America's defining contradictions: a nation founded on ideals of liberty and equality that repeatedly fails to extend those ideals to everyone.

With historian Johann Neem, former Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau, and Montana's own Chrysti the Wordsmith, this episode examines why confronting those contradictions isn't about rejecting America, it's about understanding it more fully.

Through Denise's family's story, we explore the lasting impact of federal Indian policy, from the flooding of the Fort Berthold Reservation and the Indian Relocation Program to the federal boarding school system. We then turn to Monta ...