This thread is inspired by another: view original post
When I hear american people talk about history teaching it seems to almost always be america-centric. Do you learn much about the history of other countries?
When I did history we learned about the Middle East, China, Germany, Italy and America along with the history of England.
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Edited by SOME GUY789: 1/17/2013 7:11:42 PMDude American schools don't even teach history that much anymore , in elementary we learn about early people around Mesopotamia, after which we learn mostly about the short history of the US then they stop teaching History altogether. This all changes in college however where there are multiple history classes that one can take.
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Edited by Crackerjack: 1/16/2013 9:00:19 PMEh. You can only cover so much. Most of my knowledge came from going to a ton of places with my parents while I was growing up, watching a shit ton of the history and discovery channels, playing historically themed video games, and listening to audio books in the car with my parents (back when they were on casset :D). We did at least touch on various parts of the world in history, but it was very very basic. Really though, there is a reason that people can have Doctoral Degrees in a single decade of history revolving around a single subject in a single location. There is a lot of history and various interpretations and sources of evidence that have to be examined. Trying to shove it all into a few years of highschool is insanity. I was going to be in AP geography in high school, but the teacher got arrested for possession of child porn and they couldn't find a replacement. I had done a ton of work that we were assigned over the summer, so I still got a bit out of it, but it was a disappointment.
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History during primary education (first twelve years) is pretty America-centric (It is our country, of course). In my public education, though, there were significant periods of time dedicated to the Roman Empire, Renaissance and Reformation, and ome of the 15th/16th century European history. There may have been a bit of talk about the French revolution era. Past that, in college (university?), it depends on which classes you choose to take, but classes on specific eras and geological locations are almost always available and extensive.
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Edited by CaptKrunch: 1/16/2013 8:54:00 PMIn 9th and 10th grade we learn world history, in 11th we learn American history. Next year (12th grade) I have the option to take a course that focuses on the politics and economies of 7 countries picked by the board of education. I might choose that one, sounds interesting. Edit: After reading some of the posts I'm glad my school district teaches world history the first two years of high school, American history would be boring all four years.
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Of course a country's going to focus on teaching their own history and what the country accomplished. The government wants people to be proud of their history and whether people like it or not America's done some amazing things in the relatively short time it's been around.
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We do world history in middle school, then all through high school it's American History, then for senior year it's optional Law. I highly dislike it.
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In world history we learned about the history of the world. So yes, I learned a LOT about other countries, including their origins and histories.
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Just out of curiosity, how much do you know about the Whiskey Rebellion? How about the Teapot-Dome Scandal? How about the routing of the Grand Army of the Republic? Likewise, I don't believe I would know much about the events that happened in wherever you are from. Each country teaches the history most relevant to them. Later on, in High School (Secondary School) and university, do we broaden the range to more details about the rest of the world. The same way every other country does it.
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What do you expect from one of the most self indulgent countries in the world?
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People in the US also learn about that stuff too. There's 2 world history courses you have to take. One which covers stuff from early human history up to the renaissance, then you do US history the next year, then you return to world history and do everything after the Renaissance up to modern day, then you return and do another session of US history. Well that's how it was for me at least.
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I think history class should focus on more modern times. In my American History class in high school, we only covered 1960s and beyond for the final two weeks of the year.. In World History, we talked about civilizations thousands of years old, which is interesting, but I think we should get a more comprehensive view of the modern world from these classes.
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I learned about America, Canada, Mexico, most of Europe, Asia, China, South America, ancient Greece, Mayans, etc.