"Presentism" is regarded as a derogatory term in history. As such, history education is oriented toward evidential analysis that avoids presentism as a way of training students for "historical thinking." However, for some historians, "presentism" is an indispensable source of asking historical questions and determining historical interpretation and significance. In history teaching, there has also been a teaching orientation that advocates "historical consciousness" as the goal of history teaching, involving thinking in terms of the past, present and future. This article explores the opponents' and proponents' views on the idea of "presentism" and explore their respective historiographies, set in view of historians and history teachers, in order to elucidate the idea and help enhance teachers' ability to perceive and identify different teaching approaches and their underlying historiographies for the purpose of teachers' mindful pedagogical choices. It also justifies the rationality of presentism in history teaching.