The history survey is the bedrock of history education in the U.S. across the education segments, from K-12 to community college and 4-year institutions. Yet, surveys have traditionally masked the deeper structure of historical practice, including ideology, methodology, and historiography in deference to content standards and requirements. As a result, those deeper structures often go unexamined by students who emerge from their history surveys with a narrow view of the practice and purpose of history. Since most of us have inherited the survey as a course model, it seems fair to ask whether it is possible to disinherit ourselves from the traditional survey in favor of a model that explicitly surfaces those deeper structures. Our session will focus on the challenges of teaching the history surveys across the segments, oriented around a fundamental question: Is the traditional survey inherently flawed? Our session will appeal to a broad audience of history educators who are tasked with and perhaps dissatisfied with teaching the standard history surveys, and especially for those who wonder whether it is possible to fundamentally change or improve them.