SultanOfSwing

I used to love history in school - we did the usual British history - the Tudors, Battle of Hastings, Viking invasion et cetera but we did European and World history too, including a bit of American history so we learned a lot.

My son's school calls it 'social studies' and this past year all they seemed to learn about was the bloody civil war. Even World War II would introduce them to a wider world.

I find it sad, to be honest. These kids are missing out.

Sally Redux

Another dlake. The lack of questioning really does my head in. You see it on BE all the time. We are criticizing them, this is the way it's done here and can never be changed. Why not?

SultanOfSwing

Just caught this - you're bang on again, I couldn't agree more.

robin1234

Another Freedom which I had living in England, which I've lost over here, is the freedom to do what I want on the days I have to spend here preparing my taxes, and the time throughout the year puzzling over medical insurance "Explanations of Benefits" and the like. Pettifogging bureaucracy is rampant here, more so than in the "Nanny State" or in "socialist" Europe.

Sally Redux

So true.

Excellent word btw.

SultanOfSwing

You would have had the freedom to go out for a walk, without everyone assuming you are a terrorist.

kimilseung

Well they learn about their continent, you learnt about your continent. How much world history was there really?

But there does seem to be a bit too much indoctrination. Most obviously the Pledge, which clearly has no place in an educational establishment. I have plenty to complain about how history was taught in Britain, but what it did not do was present itself as moral tales, which it does seem to do in America.

Sally Redux

We did quite a lot about America for O Level as I remember. Maybe it was before that.

kimilseung

Fair enough.
My experience of British history at O'Level, looking back, was shocking. For two years, the Gym teacher read, and we copied, we just sat there and wrote, didn't they have inspectors? (And it was British Social History)

Egon

Yes exactly - my gripe earlier about the questions in the naturalization test was a lot about the effects of it and the word I used when moaning to my wife was indoctrination. You end up with 100 'facts' being learned parrot fashion, and with no larger context required these 'facts' can be whatever you're told - the result is immigrants coming away with the handy Mel Gibson version of American history, some of it even contradicting itself, and ready to fit into society with the official narrative.

SultanOfSwing

No, they learn about one country on a continent of three; where we learned about one continent with many countries and I remember doing a bit of American history and a few bits and bobs on Australia. Hard to quantify, especially without human involvement, but there has been about 4.6 billion years of world history, if you want the pedantic answer

Take Geography then, I could name the major world capitals in maybe P5 or P6 and I can still get most of them (former USSR countries are a sticking point). There are adults here who I can smoke in a US State capital quiz - I can name all 50 and I didn't even go to school here.

I don't know, maybe that's just my perception but I think it's a bit sad all round. I agree 100,000,000% on the indoctrination, though.

Sally Redux

They didn't have as much inspection as now. We had an awful head of maths who didn't have a clue how to teach. Was pretty lucky with the rest of them though, I can still remember stuff to help the kids with homework.

On the history, I revised my post because we had a teacher who had a personal interest in the USA and that may have been before the O Level work. I know for A Level it was British and European.

dlake02

I actually had a great history teacher at school. He taught "British History." He taught how we'd f-ed up every territory that we'd ever had, usually by trying to play one side against the other. He cited Ireland, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, India, East/West Germany, Malaya as examples of how, rather than try to build consensus and peace, we'd tried to box clever for our own nefarious gains.

He taught us how he thought we had to take ourselves down a peg or two, and try listening rather than imposing solutions.... Only in the last 15 years have I finally seen England (and it is primarily England) start to practice what he was preaching 30+ years ago......

SultanOfSwing

My history teacher was even better. Blackadder was considered a perfectly acceptable teaching tool

kimilseung

That is you, dlake02 and Sally, I am starting to see that it was my school and there crappy teaching.