It is very much ongoing.
Also, not being taught that the civil war and slavery and all that shit was fucking EVIL
Edit: I grew up in the south
It is mind boggling to me that someone, in the 21st century can say: “oh yeah, owning human beings like property, that’s a-ok!”
I’m an older millennial- in the 90s they were legit telling us “some slaves had it really good”
We watched Roots in the classroom, but only the episode where LaVar Burton gets brutalized by a whip for refusing to say his name was Toby.
We also got a foot note about John Brown, I had no idea he was a white guy and one of the coolest motherfuckers to walk this earth until I was an adult.
That’s why they always showed photos in black and white. It wouldn’t do to remind people that this was very recent, historically speaking.
When my school was hit by a natural disaster, I had the opportunity to switch from a premier Catholic school to a premier public school for two semesters.
…let me tell you, the biggest disservice that you received was a systematic lowering of academic standards. The difference was night and day. There is no way that that curriculum was preparing students for college.
Since there is a limited window in which brain plasticity is at its peak, catching up at university isn’t an option. Public school students are at a permanent disadvantage; it’s an equal opportunity problem.
Since there is a limited window in which brain plasticity is at its peak, catching up at university isn’t an option.
I call bullshit. It may be true that there is a peak, but it’s not like after that peak it’s hopeless… I’m 50 years old and I work a job where I literally have to learn an ever changing product in order to support it, and I’m doing fine, I just got promoted to senior so I’m teaching the new hires. I haven’t even been there 5 years yet.
With sufficiently motivated people, it can happen. I tutored people in a small community college for a semester. It was the most rewarding job I’ve ever had.
Honestly it was mostly single moms that never understood algebra in high school but needed to pass their nursing degree requirements. When it clicked, and the light shone in their eyes, it felt like a personal success. I wish it paid better because I’d love to do it forever
They didn’t even mention Black Panthers… meanwhile, BP should get more credit than MLK and Malcolm X together.
They weren’t “peaceful protestors”, so not even brought up.
That was a long ago, has anyone here been taught differently? My school was shit (obviously)
people either had shit schools or didnt pay attention in history class
Both 😉
My history teacher put on videos and slept off a hangover at his desk more often than teaching us actual history
You were also likely taught that the genocide of indigenous Americans was a past event, too.
I have met people who did not realize that indigenous Americans still exist.
It certainly was shocking to find an active ongoing eugenics program was still active in the 1970’s.
The reality of people existing in active oppression by the US government is absolutely not the impression that I got.
I’m pretty sure Indigenous women are still being sterilized without their knowledge or consent during births or other medical procedures in parts of the US and Canada.
In the same vein as the first comment, you were also likely taught that slavery ended in the 19th century with the end of the Civil War.
I actually had a teacher that pointed out the 13th amendment prison exemption.
She was also a black muslim, as in actually wearing a hijab. (the point of this being that it was diverse af and not just white teachers)
Also focused a lot on COINTELPRO and the spying on civil right leaders that type of stuff.
And the Jim Crow stuff, sharecropping… etc…
Also that the emancipation proclamation itself probably did not free any enslaved people, since they only applied to rebelling states, which would obviously ignore it.
(Philly btw… my school was rated so bad btw… like 2/10 on the greatschool .org thing lots of fightings and stuff, the point being that its not some rich neighborhood)
But they taught almost nothing about Asian Americans… :(
Just a brief mention and that’s all, probably why racism towards Asian Americans are still so common and still socially acceptable… :(
I think about this every god damn day
Born around 2000 here: My high-school history class got to 1945 and that was the end.
The only thing I am glad my US Public School education gave me were a few history teachers who directly talked about politics, activism, and repeatedly getting arrested for protesting the School of the Americas.
Checks and balances in the federal government is my biggest disappointment. They aren’t working.
The teaching of history in US public schools very specifically focuses on peaceful protest and little else.
They want to delegitimize the use of force and downplay state violence, which is why you probably weren’t required to read ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’ or taught about the Tulsa Massacre or the Battle of Blair Mountain. It’s why Malcolm X and Nat Turner are mostly ignored while all you hear about in your black history segments is MLK and Harriet Tubman. It’s why we’re taught about the euphemistically-named ‘Reservation’ system, when in fact, these were shitty, oppressive concentration camps for indigenous people and they were required to go there or be killed while their ancestral lands were stolen. (Which is not too dissimilar from what’s happening in Gaza right now with the support of both American ruling parties.)
In hindsight, it’s rather shocking to me that in my fifth grade class we were taught about conquistadors and no one batted an eye when I had dead bodies in my diorama about Francisco Pizarro. There’s probably no way that would fly today.
I’m still learning shit in my 40’s, reading history for my own enjoyment, that I should have been taught in school. Here’s another tidbit you probably never learned about: An executed slave named Mark whose body was used as a landmark after his execution, even by Paul Revere: https://www.paulreverehouse.org/mark-hung-in-chains-slavery-paul-reveres-midnight-ride/
Also, if anyone reads my comment above and has suggestions for books or articles or tidbits that could benefit from reading, I’d love to hear them.
Out of curiosity, how much did y’all learn about the war of 1812 (US only)? I vaguely remember it was like a single page in a textbook for me. And I lived in fuckin NY
I eventually moved to Canada and learned why we weren’t taught about it
Don’t give up the ship
British burned Washington
Battle of New Orleans happeenened after the peace treaty because news traveled slowly in those days.
That’s about it
The public school system was sort of ultimately designed to make good little obedient factory line workers. Not a surprise at all, they want you to think it’s a thing of the past and get complacent. How do you think we got where we are today?
Not being taught about the Golden Age is another one.
Ironically we did spend a lot of time on that (I went to school in the eighties) and a lot of folks knew Reagan had really done us dirty. It was probably above my head.
Also, I went to a really good school.
Reagan had really done us dirty
He definitely kicked the county while it was down. But a big part of the US Golden Age was being the last economy standing after WW2.
The end of America’s economic dominance was inevitable, as old colonial powers re-industrialized and newly liberated post-colonial states gained control of their natural resources for domestic use.
By Nixon, American global dominance was sunsetting regardless of our domestic policies. That’s why we gave up the gold standard and adopted the Petrodollar as a globalized economic strategy. We couldn’t just import everyone else’s gold and sell it back to them at a premium anymore.
