In this article, the author examines how the idea (and ideal) of nation continues to serve as a directive for social studies education. He proposes discussing what a critical approach to understanding nation (and the historical narratives that define nation) might look like in the classrooms and what the stakes are for social studies educators, who may use the nation as a pedagogical site and a critically engaged political project. The author begins by introducing the pedagogical interests of academic history that advance narratives of nation to form the basis of education in the United States (as with other nations). The process of defining nation through various myths is projected onto education in characteristic ways, by Finn and others, which orchestrates a nation's self-construction. Yet, in realizing their own implication in advancing such myths, academic historians are becoming increasingly mindful of how to relate national experiences to larger projects and local resolutions.