Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh View Post
My response to Lurker was to argue that, however ignorant American are about history in general (and they are), THAT is the one lesson that has been hammered home enough so that a majority of them actually remember it.

I would also add that I think there should be several OTHER lessons about the founding and our history that are worthy of strong attention -- some for good and some for ill -- that don't stay with our little learners throughout their lives.
Admittedly I know very little about not much, but having spent the past 20 years teaching 'Murican History to 7th and 8th graders I must respectfully disagree with the hammering anything history in public schools. In my state we don't even have a state test for history anymore. In many districts history has become an every other day elective, similar to art (not saying anything bad about art). In my experience, if you can't make it rhyme, they forget about it before the beginning of the next school year.

Of course YMMV. I suppose in your place and time they didn't cover state history in 4th grade, civics in 6th, World in 7th, U.S. in 8th, and government in 9th. I suppose their focus was the ACW and an obsession over slavery.

Coin some catchy phrase about the battle flag equals slavery, and sell that to public educators, and it might become as well known as 1492. Until then, I can only share my observations that my hill-country red-neck cousins could care less about skin color, are pretty damn sure the "gob'ment" is coming for them, and the rebellion remains the standard for instances of 'Muricans standing up to the Feds.