As big a military history fan as I am, I can agree that it’s probably not that important to teach high school students the minutiae of WWII.
They need to know when it began (September 1939, because Hitler invaded Poland), some of the key events (Battle of Britain, the Blitz, Barbarossa, Japan & The US enters the War, Pacific Theatre, D-Day, Hitler’s defeat, A-bombs dropped on Japan) and from there start to look at things like The End Of Colonialism (with a Special Guest Appearance by The Vietnam War) and then move into The Modern Era, with the Fuel Crisis of the '70s and closing out with The Development Of Computers & The Internet in the 1980s & 1990s.
Having said all that, if you’re going to study WWII, you really need to look at WWI as well- otherwise you’re not really going to understand why Hitler was able to get into power in the first place, for example.
The “importance” of past events in inversely proportional to time that has elapsed since they occurred. This is because we can act only in the present, and we can’t assure ourselves of any particular future. Because all discussion of history is by nature interpretation, I see nothing wrong with expanding the “importance” within the curriculum of more recent events, even though one might conjecture that their long-term importance will be minimal. I find it unprofessional for a history teacher to play God by insisting that he knows the long-term impact of anything, let alone a world war.
Schools are fine, esp subjects like math, biology, chemistry, etc. I dont think most parents can teach those subjects.
My main points about WW2 and Vietnam, is that those 2 wars are so recent, none of us need a teacher to tell us about those wars, there are still plenty of people around who can tell us first hand or second hand and we also have gobs of actual film footage to see for our selves. I personally knew hundreds of people who were in WW2 and I can remember, and retell, all the stories they told me.
We dont need a hs history teacher to tell us about Vietnam, just rent some DVDs and talk to your uncles who were in it.
As far as the civil war, the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican WAr, etc, we can not get a DVD which shows actual color film footage of Washingtons battles, nor can we talk to any uncle who served under General Lee, so maybe we could use a good hs history teacher that can tell us about those earlier wars.
I was there in the anti-vietnam demonstrations, but only a VERY few people other than draft age kids were there. The anti-vietnam rallies, and the pro-vietnam rallies, were pretty much insignificant and only involved a tiny tiny fraction of a few people in the 1960’s. The average American was not concerned, nor impacted, nor educated, by what a few college kids or hard hats demonstrating or marching on tv.
Except for a few college kids who were ardent anti-vietnam protesters, virtually nobody else in the country at the time really knew anything about vietnam, nor cared about vietnam.
I would venture to guess that more parents teach their kids those subjects, than there are who give their kids comprehensive history lessons.
Personally, I don’t know anyone who was in Vietnam or WWII. My dad was off the coast, in the communications department of a cruiser, and his youngest brother was stationed at NAS North Island. And dad’s dead.
The main point that I, and I think others are making, is that stories from friends and family are not history. They’re anecdotes. Grandpa may be able to tell you in great detail what it was like to be at the Battle of the Bulge, but it’s unlikely that he could tell you the reasons why the war happened. History is not just a list of things that happened and dates they happened. History is a way of understanding complex dynamics. There are people alive today who were there when Japan attacked the U.S. Anyone can tell you when the attack occurred, and that it brought us into the war. But why did the Japanese attack? Were they just Bad? Few parents are going to explain Japanese expansionism, the embargo on materials imposed upon them because of their fighting in China, and so on. Few parents are going to explain that Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. on 11 December 1941. I suspect that many or most Americans don’t know that the war in Europe had been going on since 1939. How are they going to provide context to explain war broke out? Do you think that many parents/friends/relatives understand why the war broke out? The political situation that led to Hitler’s being elected to office? That WWII and WWI might be considered the same war, with a 20-year ceasefire?
There’s the old saw about ‘Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it.’ Great-granddad talking about freezing his nuts off at Bastogne puts a human face on the fighting. But it doesn’t teach any lessons.
And this is why it is important to teach history in schools, rather than to depend on friends and relatives that may not be available to large numbers of people. When populations are uneducated, bad things happen.
I’m sorry, do you actually believe this, or are you just trying to wind people up? Because either way, it’s not a very sensible thing to be trying to argue.