What is taught in American History classes?

Forgive zerky for her ignorance, but she heard that most American public schools only cover the American Revolution, Constitution and the like in History, from Kindergarten till graduation. She also heard that students who want to learn something else have to take a class called World History, which is not offered in all schools. She's not trying to insinuate anything, but she's really curious as to whether this is true or not. The Useful Notes page mentions both American History and World History in passing, but nothing specific.

Well, in my school district, we usually go from Native Americans —> World War I in eight grade. Fifth grade, we don't make it quite that far, and before that it's only about California/whatever state you happen to be in. We do have required World History classes in middle school for sixth and seventh grade. In high school, you have choices. Freshman have World Geography, sophomores have AP European History or World Geography II, juniors have American History (more in depth), and seniors are required to take government and economics.

edited 1st Feb '11 9:31:56 PM by snowfoxofdeath

We're taught American History! Although sometimes we learn cool things from the teachers not taught in the history books, like the whole thing about George Washington and the Cherry tree were probably not true and that he had wooden teeth!

Here's how it was for me

• 12th - Economics
• 11th - American History
• 10th - World History
• 9th - Civics / World Geography
• 8th - Georgia History
• 7th - World Geography?
• I can't really remember anything about elementary school.

So there was only one class explicitly devoted to non American history that I took. We did learn history in the world geography classes though.

edited 1st Feb '11 9:36:53 PM by storyyeller

Uh, a class called "American History" tends to focus on, you know, America (as in the United States, pre-Columbian stuff usually isn't covered).

High school history tends to be very Eurocentric, I've noticed. You might get some history on Africa, some on Feudal Japan or China, pre-Columbian Americans, but usually not in depth. There's AP Euro History and AP U.S. History but I've never seen AP Asian History, AP Latin American History or AP African History.

^ That's all covered in AP World History

Anyway, there's usually exactly one chapter at the start of every American History book talking about pre comlumbian America.

^^ zerky meant American History as in the History classes taught in the American school system, not History classes that specifically cover American History. Sorry if that was a little ambiguous.

World History was required at my high school.

I went to a private school in my elementary years:

• 1st through 3rd - the basic beginnings of American history: Columbus and other explorers, Jamestown, the pilgrims, the thirteen colonies, and a rudimentary review of the American Revolution and Civil War.
• 4th - a review of the above, with the Revolution and Civil War covered in greater depth. Then we worked up through the Oregon Trail, Industrial Revolution, and the basics of the two World Wars. Oh, and Washington State history, because I live there...
• 5th - Canadian and Mexican history all year.

I transferred over to the public school system in sixth grade:

• 6th - Canadian and Mexican history again.
• 7th - Really weird year: Greek history, African history, and civil rights stuff.
• 8th - American History up through the Oregon trail, more in-depth.

High school:

• 9th - "World History". A unit on different revolutions (American, Russian, French, and Haitian), colonization, and the Arab/Israeli conflict in the first semester. Then things got really weird and our teacher spent the rest of the year ranting about how bad corporations are and why we should all eat organic.
• 10th - "United States History". I loved this class (it was a small class too - 12 students, all female). We covered the early history up through World War II in-depth, and I think this was the first time we learned the "truth" about certain events in school (like America Wins the War being not-so-true; goodbye Hollywood History). We also covered the Constitution and Bill of Rights and had to memorize the presidents Then the teacher assigned different decades to partners and WE had to research and teach the rest! Oh, we also learned a lot about films and film history since the teacher was a big movie fan.
• 11th - I didn't take history this year as I had no room in my schedule and it wasn't required.
• 12th - Economics & Government. I take it at the college.

edited 1st Feb '11 10:19:16 PM by apassingthought

In elementary school, they introduced global history into the lessons, but focused mainly on early American History. In middle school and high school, American History and World History were two different classes. College/University was the same way, only with more in depth studies.

What each class actually taught depended entirely on the teachers though. For example, my eighth grade American History teacher loved the world wars, and taught us quite a bit about our involvement in both of them, but also taught us the other countries positions.

My eleventh grade World History teacher loved the Elizabethan era and the Bolshevik Revolution, so we spent quite a bit of time studying European politics during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and the fall of the Tzars.

College breaks it down further, where you can take a base level class to bring you up to speed, then pick your classes based off of interest. For example, if you're interested in Europe during the 1700s, you can find a class that focuses on that time period and region.

Here is what I remember.

Revolution, Columbus, Mayflower, Revolution, Michigan History, Michigan History, Revolution, Civil War, World War II.

The rest became 'optional'

edited 1st Feb '11 10:11:14 PM by Thorn14

Do you learn much about colonial powers, like Britain in India and China, and France in Vietnam? 'Cos I'd call my history class pretty Eurocentric, although mostly to the tune of "Europeans are dicks".

What do you mean when you say eurocentric? Whole history of Europe or just specifics periods?

9 - World History

10 - African-American History

11 - American History

12 - Social Science

edited 2nd Feb '11 7:06:36 AM by Grain

• 9th Grade: World Civilization Mesopotamia- Fall of the Byzantine Empire
  • The first semester is mainly devoted to Western Cultures, with a few exceptions, while the second focuses on non-Western civilizations. This course is meant to identify significant historical themes and improve the student's understanding of geography.

• 10th Grade: No Class Required
• 11th Grade: US History 1400s-1970s
• 12th Grade: Government 1776-2011
  • Mainly a review of the inner-workings of the government of the United States, but other countries are discussed briefly. Topics include the electoral college, bureaucracy, political parties, state rights vs federal, etc.

Electives

• Sociology
• Economics
• World Issues
• Modern Asia
• Geography

edited 2nd Feb '11 7:25:55 AM by Pentadragon

9th grade: I don't remember, I think world civilizations.

10th: European History AP + test on World History AP.

11th: American History AP

12th: Microeconomics (Fuck this class) + American Government AP

That said, America has always been pretty self-involved since for all intents and purposes, what happens outside of it doesn't matter as much as the affairs of other European countries bothers Europeans.

We do learn a lot about american history, but we learn plenty of world history as well. Mostly european, but also a good amount about asia and africa.

I vaguely recall studying ancient egypt in second grade. I don't remember any of it, but I think we studied it. I do recall having both a US and World history class in High School, but I forget what the other Social Studies classes were.

So does anyone of you guys know why all history teachers I have asked(two) both said that only war on USA's borders was the civil wars?(and when I asked second one about the Indian wars and stuff, she said something like... Well, I forgot, but she didn't count them whatever the definition was.)

We had Anceint history in 6th grade (Egypt->Medevial) and than Freshmen year was Basically the same but with more emphasis on Europe up to the Renaiesance.

We could certainly stand to have more world history, even at the cost of Pre-Columbian North American history. That doesn't even have as much bearing on the modern world as Byzantium.

^That's ridiculous, War of 1812, Redcoats burned down the Whitehouse.

Are you counting the Revolution as a Civil war?

As for the Indian wars they happened outside of American territory for the most part.

edited 2nd Feb '11 12:02:08 PM by HungryJoe

^I know, but I also mentioned stuff with Spanish =P(and hey, when I myself said that only one war(the civil war between south and north) happened within the borders, people also mentioned the Indian stuff =P

In my experience:

• 4th-5th grade(about ages 9-11): US history from Columbus to Civil War
• 6th grade: Ancient history from Mesopotamia (no evolution because it is banned from GA curriculums) to early medieval
• 7th grade: world cultures
• 8th grade: US history (in public school they take Georgia history)
• 9th grade: optional world geography class, basically they summarize the history and culture of every region of the world
• 10th grade: world history, ancient times to present, again no evolution.
• 11th US history
• 12th Government & Economics

^ Mine was basically that except the first World one wasn't optional, and no ban on evolution.

edited 2nd Feb '11 1:41:31 PM by Pykrete

My school had standard American and World History. We learned pretty much everything major about American History, but as far as World History goes we covered the Crusades, Charlemagne, the Dark Ages, and the Napoleonic Wars, at least that's what comes to mind.

edited 2nd Feb '11 1:44:00 PM by Barkey

I'm confused. What is evolution doing in a history class?