I was born in '73 so I didn’t start kindergarten until '78, a couple years after the Bicentennial. I’m not saying it had no effect but it was 1981 before I was in 3rd grade. I do remember the Schoolhouse Rock bits. Maybe that’s where I got my information from.
Around these parts, it’s “Social Studies” up until 9th grade but most of “Social Studies” seems to be history, at least from 4th grade onward. I wasn’t expecting a detailed bit of history but was surprised that there wasn’t even a “We used to be part of another country and their king but we fought a war to become our own country”.
Anyway, based on the responses, I’m satisifed enough that my kid isn’t getting cheated out of his history lessons in elementary school (not yet, anyway) and might yet get him a book or two. The kid does like to read so I might as well trick him into learning something beyond the names of 15,000 different Pokémon.
This is supposed to be taught in late elementary school–i.e., by the time kids exit fifth grade. In a very brief scan, I’m not seeing anything in early elementary school about the Revolutionary War.
I’ll second the comment about NCLB. I teach second grade, and by the time I teach the mandated amount of literacy and math every week, I have negative fifteen minutes to devote to any other subject. I can either try to incorporate science and social studies into literacy and math, or I can ignore the mandates, or I can neglect social studies and science, since social studies isn’t tested by NCLB and science is only barely beginning to be tested.
There is no Revolutionary War book for young people like the award-winning classic Johnny Tremaine. My Brother Sam Is Dead is another classic. I should mention that both of these are too much for an eight-year-old, but for 12-and-up they are the best.
Like Solfy, I memorized Paul Revere’s ride in elementary school, but I can’t remember what year. I know that I learned the Gettysburg address in third grade, and at that time had some sense of Lincoln and the Civil War.
