history and Americans

[watervole]

I've had a fair number of replies to my question about what periods of history people were taught about at school, but only one from an American. As her reply covered a surprisingly wide-ranging number of countries and periods, I'd like
to know if this was typical or unusual.

Could any other Americans reading this please give me a feel for the history they were taught at school. I'd hate to approximate a country from a single example.

Interestingly enough, I'm also finding age banding on the replies. The history we learnt partly depends on how old we are as well as where we come from. I think I may be able to work that rather neatly into my theory.

Comments

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

I didn't answer you, by the way, because I honestly can't remember what history I learned when and how. Between compulsory school, my own reading back then and later on half a year of full-time history at University I know far more of it than most people here, at least…

What might be interesting, though, is that I actually talked about history education with my Scottish GF not long ago, since I found she knew surprisingly little of it. As far as we could figure out, I got about four times as many hours of history back in compulsory school as she did. This kind of surprised me.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

I don't think the scant bits that I can remember will be much help to you. I've blocked it out because history was my least favorite subject. I remember that the bit of history I liked best was almost the first bit we did in grade school, studying the explorers - Balboa, de Gama, Magellan, etc. I remember bits in the textbooks: American revolution, industrial revolution, Civil War, a little WWII. We must have done some European history because I can remember drawing a map of Europe and doing a report on Luxembourg; I'd have been about ten or eleven then. I remember being annoyed at having no Asian history to speak of.

In Jr. High I think there was a year of US history, a year of world history, and a semester of state history. In high school I remember a year of civics(?) that I think fulfilled the history requirement. There may have been another year of world history as well; I don't recall. I got out of the history track as soon as I was able.

I don't tend to think of anything I read as history, though of course some of it is: history of language, art history, history of religion, medieval warfare, archaeology.

Languages offered at my Jr. High were Spanish and French; I had three years of Spanish. In Sr. High we had those as well as German and Russian (a fluke because one of the German teachers also spoke it), and I switched to German for three years. All foreign languages were optional.

Sorry I can't remember more than that. Oh, and this was from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

You're going to have one big problem generalizing about US education, and that is that it isn't federally centralized at all - every state has its own educational system and sets its own educational requirements. Some states have very good educational systems, and some states don't; different regions have significantly different educational systems and standards.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

That is absolutely true.

I was going to post a comment about what I learned in history in school...and then realized that it would be of NO use to you, as I was homeschooled, and when my mom wasn't customizing our curriculum, *I* was. Hee. So a LOT of it was American history from Columbus through WWII, plus Ancient History (cause we never got sick of Egypt and India and China and Britain and Greece/Rome).

[I do seem to know more about the Civil War than a lot of my peers, which is interesting to me.]

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

Definitely no way to easily encapsulate American education, because, as has been noted, there really is no standard education. Local school districts have the real power. I find that incredibly frustrating when I see the way that right-wing, Christian fundementalists are targeting local school board elections and having success - and their first move is to try strip out science classes and "put God back in the classroom where he belongs." Very, very scary.

Going back to your original post, I'd agree that the history that students are taught has varied a great deal over the years, as well as in locale.

I grew up in a military family and was educated in the US, except for Kindergarten (or its equivalent) in England. Attended elementary schools on bases stateside. Junior High (grades 7-9) was the first time that I went to a school off-base with "civvies" (kids from non-military families), and even then the school was probably 90% military offspring. After my dad retired and we moved yet again, I attended two high schools that were nearly all civilian. Big differences between on-base schools and those not situated near military bases. Meeting kids who had lived all their lives in one place was a very odd experience. Military brats have a greater - and earlier - exposure, I think, to the idea that history doesn't just mean US history - at least from sources outside the schools. A lot of service families get stationed overseas, and not-infrequently service men marry women from other countries. So there was nearly always someone in your grade who'd lived outside the US.

Graduated high school in 1978, so school memories are mercifully vague. I remember a lot of emphasis in grade school on local and state history. I spent several years in a plains state, so we had a great deal about the settling of the area, Indian wars, westward expansion, that sort of thing. Some attention to the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and the Civil War. Not much attention paid to world events. As I moved into Jr. High, we were in the middle of the Vietnam war, and that got a lot of time in school - but only from the American, "communist N. Vietnam is evil" perspective. Had several junior high and high school social science/history teachers who were passionate about their topics, so I was unusually lucky in that regard. I remember an emphasis on WWI & WWII in junior high, especially WWII (European rather than Pacific theatre). World events were still hit and miss. High school history dove-tailed with civics and that aspect always bored me, though it gave more attention to the UK (Magna Carta, development of shared common law, etc.) which I always found interesting. Civics also meant attention on classical Greek and Roman history.

From junior high and high school, I remember sections on the British Empire being contrasted with the American Republic. I remember learning about Colonial India, and how Australia was settled. Napoleonic Wars got a brief mention, as did the Norman Conquest. Never did learn much in school about Canada or Mexico, though. Didn't really study history as such in college, except for a history of science classes, and a concentration on the Renaissance due to a beloved art history teacher. (I remember voluntarily sitting through two different, three hour, Italian language films on the Medici family because of her - on Saturdays off!)

I don't think of myself as a history buff, but I am a voracious reader, and I'll often research something that sparks my interest. As a child, I was mad for mythology, and so read a lot of classical Greek and Roman history, and also Nordic sagas/histories. Agatha Christie and Barbara Mertz aka Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels kindled an interest in Egyptology. Georgette Heyer did it with the Regency period. ACD's Sherlock Holmes did it with the Victorian era. SF/F books have often spiked an interest in medieval history, though I never got into the SCA. Tanith Lee's books sparked an interest in Eastern myths and religions. For the last ten years, due South fandom has nutured an interest in all things Canadian, including history.

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

Languages? In 5th grade there was an experimental 6 week course we could take to learn Spanish, and I took it. I started German in 7th grade, the first year you could officially take a second language, primarily because my older sister had taken German and spent a year abroad in college in Germany. I continued on with German through the end of high school. Took Latin for three years in high school, though as I was the only one in class it was effectively a tutoring situation. Took sign language (ASL) in college for three years, because I was becoming aware of deaf culture and accessibilty issues. Remember very little Latin, or German, but can still communicate - barely - in ASL.

Bilingual education is a huge hot-button in the US, especially the Southwest and border states. Spanish is widely available in high school here (Southwest), but offering anything other than English in younger grades is very politcal. Second language choices in high school are typically Spanish, German, and French. Not many schools offer Latin anymore, even as an elective.

My nephew is going to a Montessori pre-school (he's four) in another state and they have a very different language philosophy from mainstream public schools. At his school recital, kids from pre-school up to second grade sang songs in Spanish, German, French, Tagalog, ASL, and the language of the Inuits!