History lessons

[Fluvius Camillus]

Holland:

Primary school was mainly general history.

Middelbare School (HAVO) (High School):

Year 1: Prehistory - Ancient Egypt - Greek and Romans (IN ONE CHAPTER OMG, my teacher already complained that you could do at least one chapter about one of them) - Middle Ages (the crusades I think)
Year 2: The Eighty years' war (Dutch Revolt) - Louis XIV, the sun king - French Revolution and Napoleon - WWII.

I enjoyed these general histories, of course I liked to learn more and thougth very important parts of history were omitted.

Year 3: We talked the whole year about the three major rising ideologies in the 20th centruy. We talked about Communism (Russian Revolution and Cold war too), Fascism and National Socialism. Quite enjoying and specific.

Year 4: We started all over again, this time faster. Prehistory - Ancient Egypt and the fertile crescent - Democracy from Athens - Roman Empire (as always with school, you only hear about the empire and the punic wars, thats all there is to say about the republic in school). - Charlemagne - Rennaissance - Enlightenment - Industrial Revolution and the Interbellum and finally a history about the independance of Indonesia from the Netherlands.

More general history, quite easy but enjoyable.

Year 5: The year was split in two, one part was about Republican Netherlands, all there was to know about it was discussed. Golden age, colonialism, Silver age. The english wars, GO CHATHAM!!! and a small part about the Spanish war of sucession. At last Napoleon's establishment of the Batavian republic and the establishment of the house of Orange-Nassau with Willem I on the throne.

The second part was VERY interesting, it focused on modern wars. First we had the Napoleontic war, followed by the Crimean war, then the French-Prussian war and finally the First World War.

Well thats what Dutch History education was about on HAVO High School. I have no time to point out any inaccuracies.

~Fluvius

[A_Dane]

I wish i was in the netherlands :/

War history has always interested me, but besides ww2 we've never covered any war whatsoever :/

[Randal]

Heh. In the Netherlands they vary the subjects from year to year, nowadays. We didn't get any military history and instead focussed on the decolonisation of the Dutch empire and the industrial revolution.

I wish I could've traded with Fluvius. Though at least I caught up later at university level.

[fomalhaut]

my intro Humanities class trumped my entire high school history education, and history is just one facet of Humanities. Spent a lot of time on Magna Graeca, Republican Rome, Pyrrhic Wars, Syracuse, etc. Though these were all just taught to be used as context to explain arts and literature of the era.

American education is infamously bad, so naturally the history is the same. I think we talked about *Greeks* 'inventing' democracy and other superficial factoid nonsense

[Zim]

My High School history classes were all over the place, but I moved and changed schools partway through. I seem to recall at least one year of "Ancient History", desperately trying to cover every major civilization up to Rome (most getting very little time). We spent longer on Rome and Greece. I'm not sure we had much of anything in the way of Medieval History, and quickly went ahead to around the Renaissance or so and then the U.S. Colonial period. From about the 17th century to the 20th was pretty well covered, although with a strong emphasis on the history of the U.S. and its wars.

I actually don't recall any terrible "facts" in High School classes. The closest was probably things that were overly simplified to fit into a curriculum, like the "Romans and Greeks invented democracy" stuff. In College, on the other hand, I had a professor who was otherwise very good when it came to her expertise (Medieval History) tell us chainmail was a Medieval european invention.

Going to school in Texas I also had to take a year of Texas History and government, one U.S. government class, and a sociology class or two that delved into history.

[xzGAB]

Here in Brazil we study a lot about history but focusing west. We divide in Brazil History and General History.

General History

Pre-History:
stone age, metal age

Anciet Civ:
Mesopotamia, Rome, Greece, Israel

Medieval:
High Middle Agre,
Low MIddle Age
Franks
Feudal System
Crusades
Renaissanse in Italy and rest of Europe

Modern:
End of Feudal
First Central Powers (examples: England Revolution, French and Louis XIV, Portugal and Spain.)
Enlightment
Grand Navigations (Portugal, Spain and American colonies)
Independence of Spanish colonies (San Martin and Bolivar)
Absolutism and French Revolution + Napoleon Period
Industrial Revolution (England and the world)

Contemporany
XIX Century (Neocolonialism of Africa and Asia: China, India)
Russian Revolution
WWI
Between Wars Period, 1929 and the crack of NY, Totalitarism
WWII
Descolonization
Cold War
Modern World: Vietnam, Israel, Cuba


Brazil History

Pre-History and Pre-Colombian people (Astec, Maia and Inca)
Brazil Colony (1500-1822)
Brazil Empire (1822-1889) and independence from Portugal
Brazil Republic (1889-...)



I would like to study a more east history. More about Persians (we almost dont study, just know about Cyrus). In fact, everything i know about east people I learned playing EB

[vartan]

I've been a student of the public education system in the United States. By the way, there isn't one 'public education system' in the States, so my previous statement is actually very inaccurate. I'm from California, so my schools had to conform to Californian standards of education and curricula. How successful my particular schools were in doing this is up for debate. Here's what I can spill, and I'm not one known for his memory:

Elementary School (sometimes called 'primary') [K-6]
--age 4 to 11 (now age 4 to 10 in most places)

History here fell under "Social Studies". It was, as in some university campuses, treated as a social science and not as part of the humanities. As such, much of anthropological work showed through in the lessons prepared for us. Although I was in elementary school for 7 years, more than I probably will be at any other educational institution, I can recall very few main points from social studies. This might tell you something! I remember learning about cave art and the first men and being fascinated by them. Then I remember learning about Christopher Columbus and how he 'discovered' America. I don't remember much on the 'classical' Mediterranean but I'm sure we had a chapter or two. There certainly was nothing of substance on the indigenous of the Americas. Remember Columbus and Hispaniola? No mention of Tainos, Arawakans, and others. The most I remember was learning about more Great Men in History (a concept; I don't recall who wrote first on this), such as all the presidents through Clinton. The texts wouldn't include 9/11 until a year after I finished elementary, if I'm not mistaken. Nothing of critical substance ever came up. No globalization, dependency theory, modernization theory, no Richard Syme, no nothing.

Middle School (sort of intermediary; 'junior high' in some places) [7-8]
--age 11 to 13 (now 10 to 13; used to be age 12 to 14)

When I went, the school only had two grades, not three. In the 7th grade we had "world history" from ice age migrations to classical age to 'dark ages' to medieval Europe to beginning Americas. 8th grade was all about US history. 'Nuff said.

High School (secondary) [9-12]
--age 13 to 18 (formerly age 14 to 18)

9th grade = no history. 10th grade = formerly world history (this is what I had); now european history (a pity, IMO). 11th grade = US history (yay, more of this). 12th grade = no formal history but you can put government and even economics in the same category (if you're into the social sciences). The world history I took used an infamous book that was very much hated by all of us mini-scholars. One word: SPODEK. Teachers of the world, do not use this book when teaching AP World History in the United States; think about the children! US history and later government were similar for me. I was never fond of US history. I learned about how the country works and how it got the way it did, but I never learned about major/minor subversions or interventions by the USA overseas. I didn't learn about any genocides (same with world history), especially of natives. I didn't learn why the Spanish incorporated the natives while the United States-ians drove ours out. And economics never discussed why the US seems to be building up debt as opposed to eradicating it. Y U NO TEACH THIS??

Postscript: I study at a UC now, so if you have any knowledge or notion of what that entails, you know the contrast to the above. Basically, as one of my professors put it, if liberal professors in all the States were to be imprisoned at once, there would be no classes left at the UCs.