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

[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.