# From what perspective is the American Revolutionary War taught to British schoolchildren? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 3, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456 "2010-07-03T21:23:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/241 "2010-07-07T13:17:13Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Thing is, British history is American history. The roots of our country and its culture are in that green and pleasant land. Americans have a great affinity for the British (and the Irish as well) because of those cultural connections. Shame the feeling doesn’t seem to be mutual. I sense more resentment and ridicule than anything when the British talk about America. Well, that’s because American history _isn’t_ British history, except in small part. If you mean the feeling of affinity isn’t mutual, you’re wrong. If anything, the British have a far greater affinity for Americans than Americans do for the British; apart from anything else, the Special Relationship is largely unknown here. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/242 "2010-07-07T13:21:31Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, that’s because American history _isn’t_ British history, except in small part. This is true - when trying to squeeze in the odd 2000 years’ worth, American history is reduced to… Discovery of the New World…big gap…American revolution…big..big..gap..what did you guys do for the best part of 150 years anyway…World War II. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/243 "2010-07-07T13:23:30Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > I must admit, when you said you studied for 55 minutes every day, that seemed an awful lot to me. Up to age 16, I think we did about two hours history every week (split into two separate lessons). ‘History’ was also one subject - it wasn’t split into ‘British’ and ‘World’ history. > > This clearly changed for me when I did two years ‘A-Level’ study, when my lessons were split into ‘British’ and ‘European’ for the period I was studying. > > But just to go back to the OP for a moment, the perspective I was taught on the AR was: a brief study on what caused it, a brief study of the Declaration of Independence, the involvement of France, and how the event and the ideas that came out of it influenced thinking in Europe and the french Revolution. All good, dispassionate stuff. The fact that you beat us Brits really wasn’t the focus. But the event certainly wasn’t ignored. That seems like good coverage to me. I’ve never felt that anyone should feel bad about it or thought that anyone was covering it up because of they lost - that stuff is pretty silly IMHO. The whole reason for my comments on this thread is that I thought the degree to which some early posters dismissed the event as not relevant or historically insignfigant was ignorant or possibly motivated by factors other than reason. I was surprised that the event seemed to have less coverage than I would have expected, but the more reasonable conversation that has occurred in this thread has led me to believe that this is due largely to differences in requirements vs. electives and focus (national vs. global) within the educational systems. This has actually been an interesting point, and a much more enjoyable conversation than the other nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/244 "2010-07-07T13:26:31Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > I spent 55 minutes per day on history, 7 out of 8 days or 5 out of 6 depending on the year. 2 years were devoted solely to world history. We kind of went back and forth between ‘deep dives’ and ‘surface skims.’ The Magna Carta gets a good deal of interest in the US - my experience tells me its the piece of British history US kids are most likely to be familiar with - probably because it played such a large role as the basis for our government. As with the other Brits the 55 minutes per day seems really high to me. I’m curious how this is fitted into the curriculum, whether you do less of something else or spend more hours a day at school. Can somehow explain (or point me to somewhere that sets it out) how the school day (and year) is structured for an average - say - 14 year old? I have to admit most of my knowledge of American eductation is derived from my daughter’s choice of films and Glee 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/245 "2010-07-07T13:27:46Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > This is true - when trying to squeeze in the odd 2000 years’ worth, American history is reduced to… Discovery of the New World…big gap…American revolution…big..big..gap..what did you guys do for the best part of 150 years anyway…World War II. 😉 Mostly farming 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/246 "2010-07-07T13:30:05Z")
I thought you’d also moved around some and had a family spat? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/247 "2010-07-07T13:35:11Z")
Divorced and developed a paunch, certainly. Also, we’re alcoholics now. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/248 "2010-07-07T13:50:29Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I thought you’d also moved around some and had a family spat? Quite a [spat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War). Over 620,000 killed in four years, all of them Americans. (My son and I spent a few days camping at [Gettysburg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Battlefield) last week with his Boy Scout troop. We hiked over 15 miles around the battlefield, which is covered with thousands of monuments and memorials.) ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/249 "2010-07-07T13:52:36Z")
> [@MarcusF](#): > > As with the other Brits the 55 minutes per day seems really high to me. I’m curious how this is fitted into the curriculum, whether you do less of something else or spend more hours a day at school. > > Can somehow explain (or point me to somewhere that sets it out) how the school day (and year) is structured for an average - say - 14 year old? I have to admit most of my knowledge of American eductation is derived from my daughter’s choice of films and Glee 😃 Well, the school year part for me was a little funky - we had either an 8-day schedule or a 6-day schedule. Let’s talk about the 6-day schedule since I think I remember that best. Gym was twice per schedule as was band. My other classes were Social Studies, English, Math, Science, French and Theology. Each of those would be 5 times per schedule, except for theology, which was 6 times per schedule and French which was only 4. So, five times four plus 2 plus 2 plus 6 plus 4 plus 6 more for lunch is 40. Throw in 2 study halls per cycle and you’re up to 42. Divide by 6 days per schedule and you’re at 7 classes per day. Senior year was a bit easier, as I didn’t take French, so I had a bunch of study halls. We had home room from 8:20 until 8:30. 55 minutes times 7 classes is 6 hours and 25 minutes. 8:30 + 6:25 = 2:55 pm. Time to go home. Here’s a random cite for another high school which describes classes as lasting for between 50 minutes and 1 hour. > **[Edward R. Murrow High School](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_R._Murrow_High_School)** > > Edward R. Murrow High School is a public high school in Midwood, Brooklyn, New York City, operated by the New York City Department of Education. The school is dedicated to the arts, and students can audition for programs in music, fine and visual arts, or theater. The school was established in 1974 by Saul Bruckner, who also served as its first principal, and was named after the renowned broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow. The school was founded based on the pedagogical theories of John Dew... ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/250 "2010-07-07T14:00:18Z")
> [@MarcusF](#): > > As with the other Brits the 55 minutes per day seems really high to me. I’m curious how this is fitted into the curriculum, whether you do less of something else or spend more hours a day at school. For my entire education beyond primary school, I always had one class period (50 minutes) per day devoted to either “social studies” or actual history. “Social studies” was the typical course name for 6th grade through 10th grade, and it encompassed history, geography, world culture, etc. In 11th grade, I took a year of U.S. history, and in 12th grade I took a year of European history. I also always had a math course, a science course, an English course (i.e. writing and literature), a physical education course, and an elective (e.g. foreign language course, art, music, typing, health class, industrial arts/shop class, etc.). Sometimes I could choose the elective, and sometimes it was mandatory (such as health class). ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/251 "2010-07-07T14:16:04Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > A British school term isn’t a semester – it’s either a third or (in some places these days) a sixth of a year. > > The Tudor period takes in the renaissance, the reformation and the beginnings of empire, to name only a the most obvious topics. And the Roman occupation of Britain was around 400 years – almost the same as the period of time now since the founding of the Jamestown colony, for instance. Whether that’s a long period or not depends on your point of view, I suppose. 😉 Oh, I usually consider the period of Roman _occupation_ much shorter: not because Britain wasn’t part of Rome, but because it was no longer a military district. I also wasn’t too clear on what you meant by “term”. Now we’re communicating! ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/252 "2010-07-07T14:18:08Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > So, this was a pretty long time ago, but I’ll try to cover what I remember (and I’ve been drinking tonight…): > > I definitely remember learning about: > > The French Revolution My own American high school history class teacher said, if there’s ONE THING she wanted us to remember in all of world history, it’s 1789 being the date of the French Revolution. I learned a lot of history during that period, but precious little of it in school. The state of Virginia focused on the Civil War period, and even more heavily on the immediate aftermath (“Reconstruction” in American parlance). Over and over, year after year, we learned that somebody in the state is still mad about these things. World War II was also – Sorry, class, we’ve spent so much time on Reconstruction this year that there will be no unit on World War II (again). ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/253 "2010-07-07T14:32:06Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > Well, the school year part for me was a little funky - we had either an 8-day schedule or a 6-day schedule. Let’s talk about the 6-day schedule since I think I remember that best. > > Gym was twice per schedule as was band. My other classes were Social Studies, English, Math, Science, French and Theology. > > Each of those would be 5 times per schedule, except for theology, which was 6 times per schedule and French which was only 4. > > So, five times four plus 2 plus 2 plus 6 plus 4 plus 6 more for lunch is 40. Throw in 2 study halls per cycle and you’re up to 42. Divide by 6 days per schedule and you’re at 7 classes per day. Senior year was a bit easier, as I didn’t take French, so I had a bunch of study halls. > > We had home room from 8:20 until 8:30. 55 minutes times 7 classes is 6 hours and 25 minutes. 8:30 + 6:25 = 2:55 pm. Time to go home. > > Here’s a random cite for another high school which describes classes as lasting for between 50 minutes and 1 hour. > > [Edward R. Murrow High School - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_R._Murrow_High_School) Thanks! I need to digest this… One thing: how did the 6 (or 8) day cycle work? Presumably this would mean the timetable moved through the week so you couldn’t say, “It’s Tuesday so first period is Science.” Science would be Tuesday this week and Wednesday the following week. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this at an English school - not that I have an enormous range of experience to call on! My kids’ schools did use a 2 week cycle but this at least meant alternate weeks were the same. Following on the discussion of term v semester, how long is a semester, how many of them are there in the year, and how long are the holidays? In England (Scotland is different) the basic pattern of the school year is for it to start at the beginning of September, then they’ll be a week off in October, two weeks for Christmas, another week of in February, two weeks for Easter, a week at the beginning of June, and the year finishes in mid July. Lots of variations on this across the country as some areas have tried to even out the terms (Autumn term is way too long and Easter moving about always causes trouble) but no standard system has evolved. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/254 "2010-07-07T14:37:45Z")
In Florida, the school year is typically arranged as two four-and-a-half-month semesters. Two weeks off at Christmas, one or two weeks off in the middle of the spring semester (Spring Break), and a loooong summer holiday. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/255 "2010-07-07T15:13:21Z")
> [@MarcusF](#): > > Thanks! I need to digest this… > > One thing: how did the 6 (or 8) day cycle work? Presumably this would mean the timetable moved through the week so you couldn’t say, “It’s Tuesday so first period is Science.” Science would be Tuesday this week and Wednesday the following week. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this at an English school - not that I have an enormous range of experience to call on! My kids’ schools did use a 2 week cycle but this at least meant alternate weeks were the same. > > Following on the discussion of term v semester, how long is a semester, how many of them are there in the year, and how long are the holidays? In England (Scotland is different) the basic pattern of the school year is for it to start at the beginning of September, then they’ll be a week off in October, two weeks for Christmas, another week of in February, two weeks for Easter, a week at the beginning of June, and the year finishes in mid July. Lots of variations on this across the country as some areas have tried to even out the terms (Autumn term is way too long and Easter moving about always causes trouble) but no standard system has evolved. For the 6-day schedule, the first school day of the year is Day 1, then Day 2, etc. So, if it started on a Tuesday, then Friday would be Day 4, the following Monday would be Day 5, the cycle would start over on Day 1 that Wednesday and so forth. According to our teachers it was meant to prevent every week from feeling the same - mostly I think it just caused people to forget to bring their gym clothes on the right day… My old school’s current calendar for the upcoming school year: Sept. 8 - 1st day of classses Christmas break is from Dec. 22 until Jan 2 Spring Break is April 18 - 25 Exams start on June 9 and end on June 24 (5 days of school exams, and then 10 days of state exams) There were no semesters for me - all classes were for the entire duration of the year with exception of my senior social studies class which was broken into 2 half year courses, 1 in economics and the other in poli sci. ETA: I’m pretty sure that there are a huge amount of differences on this stuff from school to school and especially from state to state within the US) ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/256 "2010-07-07T15:17:41Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > My own American high school history class teacher said, if there’s ONE THING she wanted us to remember in all of world history, it’s 1789 being the date of the French Revolution. > > I learned a lot of history during that period, but precious little of it in school. The state of Virginia focused on the Civil War period, and even more heavily on the immediate aftermath (“Reconstruction” in American parlance). Over and over, year after year, we learned that somebody in the state is still mad about these things. World War II was also – > > Sorry, class, we’ve spent so much time on Reconstruction this year that there will be no unit on World War II (again). Yeah, us yankees (I live in the south now, went to HS in NY) didn’t spend too much time of the Reconstruction. Probably less than a week. ETA: Possibly a lot less… ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/257 "2010-07-07T17:17:14Z")
> [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](#): > > … > The “British Empire” that most people think of, Professor Higgins, Mary Poppins, Rourke’s\*\* Rift\*\*, and all that … > _bolding mine_ Despite my great respect for your user name, the inner pedantic in me points out that it is actually **Rorke’s Drift** Mr. Yatch. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/258 "2010-07-07T17:25:14Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > My own American high school history class teacher said, if there’s ONE THING she wanted us to remember in all of world history, it’s 1789 being the date of the French Revolution. Heh. I don’t mind people focusing more on their national history - they should. This is an odd thing,though. While the French Revolution is important (I stuidied a bit of it), its impact on the world was mixed. I’d say it’s impact on _Europe_ was huge. But in the long run, I’d probably say the American revolution was more important (indeed, I’m not certain the French would have occurred at all, and certainly not in the way it did, if not for the American). In fact, the French Revolution to me is most important for casuing a new series of European counter-reviolutions, and then later more revolutions, few of which were pleasant. Reall;y and ugly episode on both sides. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/259 "2010-07-07T20:12:11Z")
Darth, yup, you are misinterpreting those comments - and taking them out of context - just like you did when I said ‘we don’t care.’ Was the 55 minutes a day Social Studies rather than history? That sounds more like what we do have here these days, because we used to always study history, geography, citizenship (or the former equivalents) as discreet subjects, but kids now generally study ‘humanities’ which flips between those topics, often combining them (my daughter’s school includes religious education as part of humanities too). How come there was no art, computing, technology, music, drama and so on the curriculum at your school? Is that something to do with elective afterschool clubs providing those subjects instead (and sometimes counting towards your high school diploma)? Here, they’re part of the regular curriculum (up to age 16). It simply would not be possible to have almost an hour a day of history without greatly diminishing the other subjects. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456/260 "2010-07-07T20:21:22Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > (indeed, I’m not certain the French would have occurred at all, and certainly not in the way it did, if not for the American). Well, if you’re gonna play the “it wouldn’t have happened without X” card, how far can we go back? The American Revolution wouldn’t have happened without a number of factors, and they wouldn’t have happened without a number of factors each. You don’t get to just draw the line at the thing _you_ value the most. So the birth of the “evil tyrant” King George was the most important event in the world. How can you claim that European influences weren’t instrumental in American development? Your “founders” (that’s the word you use for the signatories of the DoI, isn’t it? or am I mistaking it for the folks on the Mayflower?) - but, anyway, those sigantories - many of them soent a lot of time in Europe after the declaration. It’s not like a big wall was built, and Europe was still vital to America for many decades after (well, still is, despite many US opinions - and vice versa, of course). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-what-perspective-is-the-american-revolutionary-war-taught-to-british-schoolchildren/545456.md?page=14)