Its not really mentioned at mandatory levels, we focus on the world wars, the empire and the Romans - its mainly stuff to do with homeland history. Having said that I did do Vietnam in my GCSEs. I learned about the Revolution in 6th Form in my American Politics class and I dare say the more cynical viewpoint my Politics teacher took is a little more accurate than the viewpoint a lot of American children seem to be imbued with. Essentially I was taught it from a political point-of-view; Britain was involved in wars with much larger opposition than the revolutionaries in the colonies a few thousand miles away, Britain thought that Australia and India were the future of its wealth, not the USA, there was little appetite for fighting our own people etc Also the tea party thing was done by smugglers upset at how cheap the Colonies were getting their tea (cheaper than England) as it was running them out of business. Taxation without representation was something the colonists knew about long before they settled, and to me appears to be the very first instance of American exceptionalism. It was an Empire wide policy, and obviously there is the problem for the Administration that if you grant one territory representation, they'll all start asking, which would be unfeasible.