I moved from Seattle to Michigan when I was 14. I had been through several history classes in junior high and elementary school, and observed my elder siblings history classes. In the Seattle schools, history always ended with World War 2. It was as if nothing after that happened at all.
In Michigan, it was exactly the same, but by my senior year (1989) it had gotten better. This was around the time Platoon and Full Metal Jacket came out, so the country was going through a period of self examination over the Vietnam thing. It had become more acceptable. We actually had some Vietnam Veterans come in and speak to our classes. One of them brought slides of pictures he had taken. There was some pretty R rated stuff in there, too.
Wow, what an uptight freak! I bet you could send him to the hospital by wearing a jacket on a warm day or sandals on a cool day. What if you ate a pbj sandwich on rye bread? Oh, the humanity!
[QUOTE=Leviosaurus]
I moved from Seattle to Michigan when I was 14. I had been through several history classes in junior high and elementary school, and observed my elder siblings history classes. In the Seattle schools, history always ended with World War 2. It was as if nothing after that happened at all.
…QUOTE]
We never got much beyond the early 60s, there wasn’t enough time to go further. We learned segregation was only a problem in the south (north of the Maison-Dixon line all races had equality). That the Pilgrims taught the Indians about agriculture. That George Washington was offered the American crown and declined. We were never taught that slavery existed in the north. We learned that all slaves were black and all slaveowners were white (I was shocked when I learned that neither was true).
Ditto. In World History we only got to WW2, and barely that. (I’m still waiting to find out who won- I’m guessing Robert Mitchum.)
I had a whacked out math teacher who “taught” us several things that you wouldn’t read in a textbook (which have nothing whatsoever to do with math). This was a woman who- I wish I could post a picture just for emphasis- had Dana Carvey grown up in central Alabama I’d be absolutely 100% positive he based the Church Lady on her. She “taught” that Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s, was a Satanist who gave millions to the Church of Satan (with all the people who gave millions and millions to the Church of Satan over the years it’s amazing that Anton Lavey died in a ramshackle run down house and never made more than a 5 digit income in his life [according to his wife and children]) and thus Big Macs equalled hell. She taught that the Beast in Revelations was homosexuality (of course- why wouldn’t it be?), gave us bonus points if we signed petitions to keep Ozzie Osbourne out of Alabama (which I signed because those bonus points could be the difference in my passing and failing, I was that terrible a student) and that Algebra was really Christian, not Islamic in origin (how I’m not sure). Interesting broad; she had three children and was somehow still, I’m sure, a virgin (though none of her kids were within 5 minutes of college- true stereotype rebellion thing happened with all three).
I’ve got to add a second recommendation for reading Lies My Teacher Told Me. Good book, informative in and of itself, with a ton of more resources in the bibliography. There are a ton of inaccuracies I was taught in school. I learned through experience to be skeptical of teachers. There were times when I actually knew more about a subject than the teacher did. Considering that I still don’t consider myself to be much of an expert on anything (I’m more of a generalist), that’s pretty scary.
As YaWanna pointed out (and you acknowledged) on the previous page, you’re thinking of the Puritans.
The original Pilgrims, on the other hand, were so concerned about running out of beer that they changed the course of the Mayflower (and hence American history):
We were taught in university physics class that the Tacoma Narrows bridge fell down because of simple harmonics and resonance. Winds up being far more complex than that.
shrug Depending which side of the Mason-Dixon line my school was on, the battles frequently had different names. I don’t see why the ships can’t too. (It took a while for me to realize there were only about half as many Civil War battles as I thought.)
It wasn’t like they were running out of cold Budweiser. Beer was a much safer drink than water, and not very similar to what we think of it these days.
please tell me you’re a citing some bad teaching here. Electricity travels through the entire body of the wire.
Common sense, two years of university physics, and current manufacturing practices all convince me that this is absolutely true. I’m gonna need a very good cite to convince me otherwise.
I was taught that Washington threw a silver dollar across the Potomac. Of course, the dollar went a lot further in those days…
I was taught that the bomb was dropped on Japan because they would never surrender. In truth, they were trying to negotiate a surrender via the Soviets.
I can’t speak for all schools, but at my school in Southern California, we get the kids through Vietnam in US History, and I get them up to, if not through, the Balkans and the formation of the EU in European History. We actually do try to stay as current as we can.
You sound like the history teacher I wanted in HS and college. I always got the “history is to be learn by rote from the textbook” teachers, except once.
When I was in high school, we never got past War World 2. Why? Because we always started with the Indians, and then we did the colonies, so it was a while before we even got to the revolution.
I always wonder why not just do a sequnce of classes. Do one class on the indians and then we’re done with it. Then do a class on the colonies/revolution and be done with that. And then early 1800’s, then Civil War, etc.
But for some reason, he had to start over with the indians every time, it seems.
Of course, I don’t know where you went to 3rd grade, but I can tell you that in North Carolina, at least in the 80’s, all you had to have was an associate’s degree to get a job as an elementary school substitute teacher. I do not lie - they hired me one season. I worked 3 days - the highest grade class I “taught” was 3rd grade. I was 19 or 20.
Not that someone with an associate’s degree - or a high school diploma, for that matter - has any excuse to not know the difference between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean…
. That is great. 
