What were you taught in school about your country's history

[dwightsteel]

I was, as with most students, taught a crap load of lies about America's history. It sucks. I was shocked when I started into my own investigations to find out all the straight up lies we've been told.

Paul Revere? never finished the ride. Was captured by the red coats before he made it half way to Boston. It was completed by a doctor named Samuel Prescott. Longfellow's poem was crap, and no teacher of mine ever bothered to correct it.

Boston Tea Party? Wasn't done by patriots because the British were hiking tea prices with the Tea Act. Brits actually lowered the price of tea, and the Boston tea party was perpetrated by smugglers sending a message to Britain. As a matter of fact, so few people have bothered to look up the truth of that event, that YESTERDAY, Americans around the nation paid homage to that lie by doing their own Tea Party to protest taxes.

Tell me that's not completely fucked.

Most American's know so little about what actually happened with our history, it's a joke.

I recommend A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, or I Love Paul Revere Whether He Rode or Not by Richard Shenkman, if this is stuff you didn't know and you want your mind blown.

 

[Pandalisk]

Oh, and also that "potatoes is bad"

 

[Liberaliterr]

Being English I always remember being taught loads about the Tudors and Victorians, and a bit on British history after 1900, we also learn a lot about the colonial era.

 

[hashinta]

Mine was the entire Australian history (cause you can fit it on a stamp) Ancient Egypt and Roman History, American revolution, both world wars, Chinese modern and ancient, Japanese modern and ancient, history of the catholic church (not the bible just establishment and the spread of it) and lastly little bits from various European countries. but since australian history is so short we do alot of other countries histories instead.

 

[Unknower]

"... and that's how the residents of this glorious nation invented gun powder before the Chinese and Greeks."

Errr, I think we were taught everything important and mostly without bias. Though I think that couple of decades ago the school would have taught that "It was our fault that the mighty Soviet Union, country of the free etc., had to attack Finland and take Karelia."

 

[rainman2203]

I learned something along the line of: "AMUURRIIICCAAA! FUCK YEAH! Coming again, to save the mother fucking day yeah!"

America's great and everything, but our history books toot our own horns a little hard.

 

[Seekster]

While America's "kick ass" rating cannot be understated (thinly veiled nationalism), we do have to admit that we have only been around for a relatively short period of time.

As for what I learned in history: never march on Moscow...just dont do it.

 

[GruntOwner]

Year 7: William the Bastard, Fuedalism, Fawkes.
Year 8: The USA and how things really started going down hill after we left.
Year 9: Long term and short term causes of WW1, trench warfare, 1960s+ USA, which was basically an excuse to watch Forrest Gump... Probbaly the only thing that made the year tolerable.
Year 10: Dropped it like a sack of bricks.

It's supring how little attention is payed to the Norse part of our history, it's only a short blast in primary wchool which comes down to "The vikings were hairy and became christian after a while".

 

[ShameSpear]

We spent a lot of time on slavery when I still took history. Wayyyy too much time. Basically we learned everything about America from a pure propaganda point of view. If only people were smart enough to break through the bullshit. Hell, I wasn't even taught that the French helped out in the American Revolution. Learned that from movies. Terrible.

 

[dwightsteel]

We spent a lot of time on slavery when I still took history. Wayyyy too much time. Basically we learned everything about America from a pure propaganda point of view. If only people were smart enough to break through the bullshit. Hell, I wasn't even taught that the French helped out in the American Revolution. Learned that from movies. Terrible.

The French never helped with anything. Because they're french.

Hey, what do you call 170,000 People with their hands up?

 

[GloatingSwine]

In history:
General historical techniques and research.
Henry VIII, the dissolution of the monasteries, and the general land grabbery and jostling for power.
The Industrial Revolution.

World War I, the historical and geopolitical causes and outcomes thereof, particularly surrounding Otto von Bismarck, the major historical battlefields in France and Belgium, and the political outcomes, the Treaty of Versailles and the inception and ultimate failure of the League of Nations. (Of course, not specifically about England/Britain, because you can't really look at single nations in that kind of continental event.)

 

[Monocle Man]

First year of secondary school: Beginning of humans till Egypt as most developed country.
Second year of secondary school: The Greeks and Romans.
Third year of secondary school: The medieval era in Europe.
Fourth year of secondary school: The discovery journeys across the sea along with the French revolution.

That's as far as I am. Next year should be about the world wars.

 

[xChevelle24]

My timeline looks a little like this:

English came to america to escape the British
We kicked the British out of the US cuz we're bad ass
We kicked the Indians out of the US cuz we're bad ass
We kicked the Mexicans out of the US cuz we're bad ass
We kicked the Japanese to internment camps cuz we're bad ass
Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to be killed


That's pretty much my AP history class. We haven't covered a SINGLE interesting topic besides WWII. We completely skipped over the Titanic incident, even though it was one of the BIGGEST covered stories of 1912...

Ugh, fuck American Studies

 

[johnman]

From what i can remeber the Romans and Roman britian, the Tudors, Victorians and a bit for the first and 2nd world war, the Blitz especailly.
Oh and i think we did Egypt

 

[Zersy]

It went a lot like this:

World History - Chapter One: Beginning of the Earth to WWII.
World History - Chapter Two onward (twelve chapters per unit, three units,): America.

American History: America.

I hate our school system. I dumped most of the knowledge because it was, frankly, utter shit. If it wasn't "America is great" it was "America WAS AND STILL IS great."
I don't need that shit.

A really agree with you

School has not taught me anything good in history
i ended up finding history way more fun when you do it yourself

apparantly Arab and Middle Eastern history is Damn right intresting
so intresting that without we wouldn't be where we are now

 

[AGNGoo]

I went to high school in the early '00s (started in 1999, I believe). I realized there were going to be holes in my historical education when I flipped to the last page of my apparently ancient textbook out of curiosity and saw it speculating on if we'd ever make it to the moon.

I transferred to independent study history shortly thereafter.

 

[Xvito]

In my country (Sweden), we're taught that Sweden is the nicest country ever to exist and that we've always been a great huggy bunch.

What we're not taught however is that it was a man from our country who was the first man to split people in to different races, depending on how good the race was they got different ranks, with White Europeans on top and Indians/Chinese (don't ask why these two are in the same group) down on the bottom.

Also, Sweden was the first country to have a Race-Biologic Institute that stood as an example for the one that the Germans built during the Hitler regime. While we're on that topic I might add that the Swedish king during that time (and our entire military staff) actually liked Hitlers ideas, the king even went to some of his parties... The only reason that we weren't on Hitler's side during the war (technically we kind of were but...) was for the simple fact the our government were (and are) wussies.

Edit: I don't mean it's a bad thing that we weren't on Hitler's side.

 

[H.S.T]

I learnt that this country is... old?

 

[Arrers]

In primary school, It was about britain at the height of it's political strengh. the Tudors, the industrial revolution and a bit about the victorians and the british empire. Also I remember learning a lot about the classical greeks and the roman empire.

In secondary school I did history of medicine, the arab-israeli conflict and WWII.

I'm currently studing 20th Centry amerian history, with I find intteresting.

 

[InProgress]

Stil in high school but it goes somewhere in the lines of:

First 4 grades: I've no idea, don't give a shit
Gymanasium (5-8): Ancient times, passing through basic european histroy and even less other ocntinents. 7-8th grade romanian history of how we got our asses kicked and were passed on like potatoes around the dinner table from one dominant nation to another.

High school: Rehash of gymnasium, only with more details. Also, we never actually learnt anything from ww1 to contemporany history, as apparently, it's illegal to teach children about the events that happened in the 1950s. As for WW1 and 2, teachers didn't even bother with it since we aren't required to know about it for the exams for finishing 8th and 12th grade. They put most emphasis on the post-Dark Ages (we're always behind everything so Dark Ages and Renaisance mean 15-1700). Up until 1890, then no one actually wants to teach anything about contemporany history, even though it shows our most recent mentality.