Education: Teaching History

[Darzin]

Mostly, I felt like my history education wasn't very propaganda-esque at all. It was just ... minimal. One might say almost criminally so.

Yeah I feel like people who talk about the propaganda in American schools went to school 30 years ago when it was worse ours had very little propaganda more just focusing on America to much and colonization. I must of studied that four times.The history in Europe was pretty minimal also We had a blan space from the fall of Rome until Napoleon. The farthest east we got was a two week unit on the three Gunpowder Empires. One of the problems was the history books were set west to east so we never got to China because the teachers always ran out of time before we got to that section. But we did learn about the women's rights movement, Indian wars,labor movement, first second and third wave feminism,the interment of the Japanese, holocaust, debated Hiroshima all of America's wars.So while not exactly comprehensive it's a balanced history of one own country and not just rah rah rah MURICA' like some people are claiming. I think some people wanted these reforms to happen and they did but they don't know it because they are not students anymore.

[Zoë Sumra]

Our history was almost uniformly white, aside from Ottoman Turks Were Bad, Americans Kept Black Slaves (neatly glossing over the British role in that) and a little on US civil rights problems. We got a little European history and a lot of British: WWII too many times, WWI too few (WWII in the way it's taught in the UK presents a simple good versus evil narrative. WWI is more complicated. And of course we barely did the Boer War where the UK messed up big time, and only just mentioned the American war of independence and the conquest of India etc. Irish independence was never mentioned). The only African history we got was Ancient Egypt for a term or so and the history of colonised South Africa (as our GCSE non-European topic).

[lessthanluke]

Our history was almost uniformly white, aside from Ottoman Turks Were Bad, Americans Kept Black Slaves (neatly glossing over the British role in that) and a little on US civil rights problems. We got a little European history and a lot of British: WWII too many times, WWI too few (WWII in the way it's taught in the UK presents a simple good versus evil narrative. WWI is more complicated. And of course we barely did the Boer War where the UK messed up big time, and only just mentioned the American war of independence and the conquest of India etc. Irish independence was never mentioned). The only African history we got was Ancient Egypt for a term or so and the history of colonised South Africa (as our GCSE non-European topic).

I don't even remember doing a non-European topic at GCSE.

[SheRa Seastar]

We did Anglo-Saxons, the industrial revolution, WW2, specifically The Battle of The Atlantic because it was an anniversary, and we touched upon Irish immigration to America, and the slave trade. The last three were all exhibitions in the same museum, so our school probably got a good deal to take us there. I only did history until year 9, so most of our lessons involved colouring in.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

SheRa,

Sounds like your Teacher dropped the book open and started each day teaching at random.

[SheRa Seastar]

SheRa,

Sounds like your Teacher drop the book open and started each day teaching at random.

Basically, although a lot of it was very Liverpool orientated. He missed loads of Liverpool's history out though and just chose the ones he had pictures for us to colour.

[Gillio]

Here is the Western Australian curriculum

from what I can remember, if hasn't changed much since I was at school, just there's more of it now! :p

[Uncia]

Did you people go to white supremacist schools or something? I'm sure both of you exagarate the whole white issue.

Oh really ?

- history in Africa : Ancient Egypt, the rest, nada.

- history of Asia : a few lines about Genghis khan maybe. no China, no Japan, no India, no Korea.

- history of Oceania : nada

- history of pre-colombian America : a few lines... ?

- history of the islamic empire : nada. it only "appeared" in battles fought in europe.

but we had the end of WWII.........day by day !!! thanks but no thanks, my granddad taught me all about it, the resistance, Franco in Spain, Normandy, etc.

[Drekinn]

Oh really ?

- history in Africa : Ancient Egypt, the rest, nada.

- history of Asia : a few lines about Genghis khan maybe. no China, no Japan, no India, no Korea.

- history of Oceania : nada

- history of pre-colombian America : a few lines... ?

- history of the islamic empire : nada. it only "appeared" in battles fought in europe.

but we had the end of WWII.........day by day !!! thanks but no thanks, my granddad taught me all about it, the resistance, Franco in Spain, Normandy, etc.

So? Schools teach basic history in a nutshell. Is that list supposed to say the system is racist? Besides, the history is all available for you or any student to learn at any time in this day and age.

[Uncia]

So? Schools teach basic history in a nutshell. Is that list supposed to say the system is racist? Besides, the history is all available for you or any student to learn at any time in this day and age.

The system is ethnocentric and western centric.

and "all history" was NOT available in the nineties. no internet and all.

but i educated myself, and intend to provide a global comprehensive

education cursus for my daughters.

[Summah]

Did you people go to white supremacist schools or something? I'm sure both of you exagarate the whole white issue.

Columbus. No mention of the slavery and genocide, no mention of pre-Colombian contact between the Americas and elsewher in the world. The founding fathers of the US and some other presidents were glossed over with the usual lies and bullshit. The colonization of America was called settling, in terms of colonialism, as far as those history books was concerned only European countries did that. There was no mention of any of the diseases that actually made it possible to colonize here. And then the parade of dead white men continued. And the civil war coverage... ugh.

In world history, we didn't learn anything about African history except ancient Egypt, Asia, I think China was vaguely mentioned without much detail (there was more about Asia when we did WWII), Australian Aboriginals, Pacific Islanders - nothing. And then there was a lot about WWII, and then the Cold War, which was portrayed without nuance.

We did have black history month (well where I went it was a month, I think in other places it's a week or day which is all we had for women and other POC), but all that should really be integrated into the material not made a special month or week.

This was not so long ago, but we did have old text books because it was an inner city school district and didn't have a lot of money.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

This. It's my main pet peeves with schools. (and i'm european).

Homeschool rocks.

I'll teach "universal" History to my kids.

not about just the white POV

and not only the male POV

there's more to History than battles.

A lot of kids are just more interested in the battles and stuff. I would have never gotten interested in history if it were all about the ethno-cultural migrations and farming patterns.

[cdawnb]

It's so funny to me how diverse it seems to be here in the States. I learned American History (The Revolution, slavery and how the founding fathers left in slavery, the Civil War, Manifest Destiny, the genocide of the Native Americans, including the Trail of Tears, the slaughter of the buffaloes, giving Native Americans blankets infected with small pox, WW1 & WW2, although much more on the second, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement.)

Ancient History (touching on the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Persians and Indians, with some Chinese, Mongols, Korean, and Japanese.)

Very little on Africa outside of colonialism, but we did learn about apartide in South Africa.

Almost nothing on Australia. I couldn't even tell you when it was colonized. I do remember it started out as a penal colony :laugh: .

European History, lumping in UK and Russian with that. It was almost exclusively Dark Ages and Middle Ages stuff until we hit WW2.

Now, having said all that, none of it was comprehensive except for American history. But I did come out with a basic knowledge of world history. Hell, I had history every year up until 11th grade in high school.

Is it maybe I remember more because it was my favorite subject and it was so easy for me? I used to drive my history teachers nuts because I never did my homework but could ace all of my tests.

[OnionAhaiReborn]

I think my public school history education was quite good, and about as non-Western centric as one could realistically expect from an American school.

In high school I did two years of World History, and while a great deal of it is now lost to my memory, I know we covered ancient civilizations worldwide- pre-Colombian American cultures, Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Japan, sub-Saharan Africa. Then lots on the Roman Empire, Caliphates, European feudalism, Crusades, Mongol Empire, pre-Meiji Japan. From there it was probably more European in a sense- early European nation-states and then exploration, colonization, imperialism, decolonization. Considering time limits, I think it gave a pretty solid foundation of world-historical knowledge. It definitely consciously steered clear of things touched on in American history classes like World Wars 1 & 2, or the Cold War.

[aceluby]

Man, my public education looks great compared to some of you. Had 3 years of US history, starting with the Native American voyage, a year of ancient world history, and two years of modern world history. Seemed to cover all the base topics, and while it would have been great to go deeper; that's not really what high school history is really for.

[Aemon Stark]

For whatever reason in grade 5 we did a whole unit on Japan, though I can't recall the content that well. The next year we spent a lot of time on the Aztecs. Not really sure why, but there we go.

[Reny of Storms End]

I had a pretty good historical education. Although I contribute most of that to the teachers, who were allowed to teach the periods they were passionate about after 9th, freshman, year.

Although even as ninth graders we did an awesome student led two week debate on who started WWI. You were assigned a country, and your arguments were scored, if you somehow admitted starting the war or could not answer a question that would incriminate your country you were out. The second week consisted of all the top scorers from each class, as long as your country was still left, joining together and going at it again. It was an incredible experience.

[Shryke]

Another thing I notice in other people's posting is many do local history. This seems to be a common thing?

We didn't do shit on local history.

For whatever reason in grade 5 we did a whole unit on Japan, though I can't recall the content that well. The next year we spent a lot of time on the Aztecs. Not really sure why, but there we go.

At least in Ontario this is the kind of thing you would get in elementary school before they reformed and tightened up the educational system. It was often at the whim of the teacher, so you'd get some random shit in history class.

[jarl the climber]

Um "stomach" the peace treaty? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the British get pretty much everything they wanted with the exception of a First Nation state?

It was an armistice that restored the status antebellum. Most of the thornier issues were left to later negotiations.

[Maester Drew]

History and Education in the Texas Panhandle 2006-2014 for the Class of 2014

Fifth Grade- United States History (general statements on Revolution and Civil War--- maybe geography)

Sixth Grade- World Cultures (focused mostly on the West, mention of Ancient Cultures)

Seventh Grade- Texas History (Prominent Native American Tribes, Six Flags of Texas, Civil Rights--- oh "Mexicans were terrible" during Texas Revolution)

Eighth Grade- United States History I (1492-1877, some Pre-Columbian of course but only briefly)

*Ninth Grade- World Geography (geographic terms, major land marks, it should be noted today most of my peers still do not know where most of countries are)

*Tenth Grade- World History (the West, the West, the West and even then nothing in depth- maybe Rome, Medieval Ages, Renaissance, Age of Exploration WWI and WWII... oh and US Foreign Policy)

Eleventh Grade- United States History II (1877-today, Moving West, Indian Wars, Imperialism, WWI, WWII, Cold War, Raegan, Clinton, Bush Eras)

Twelfth Grade- either Economics or Government (learn basic ideas, American view so how US Economics or Government works)

I know that is tedious but essentially what I am trying to get across is that were I am from the education was insanely biased towards Western Views more specifically American Views

*Incompetent Teachers.