Any teachers on here for these subjects would be great. What im wondering is how close to you get to current day in either World or US History?

In all of my HS history courses (think it was world, US, euro?) we covered so much stuff and rather extensively that we really didnt get past WWII hardly at all. Once we got through that and the immediate effects, we looked very briefly at the 60s and 70s and the year was done. (this is especially cramped for people who take courses in 'semesters' like college rather than a full year).

From people I talked to while I was at college, it seemed like this was fairly common.

Do any of you see US History (and possibly others) getting split into more courses in HS anytime in the near future? Say a required US History I and US History II. Just because by the time I have kids in HS 20 years from now or so, there is just too much material to cover in one class. I felt I missed out on a lot as it is.

12/20/2007 1:36:56 PM

well US history is too short to not cover current events.

12/20/2007 1:58:51 PM

youd be surprised the amount of people who dont get it all though. Whether it is from poor planning on the teacher's part or whatever, it happens fairly often. Like I said, I notice it a lot in people who had HS that switched to semesters instead of years (many of them WWII was the last thing covered after talking to people)

12/20/2007 2:00:39 PM

yes i was very dissapointed in my US history course in HS. it was like once we got done with a week or so of Vietnam, there was brief mention of farming and Reaganomics and then school was over the next day.

i felt cheated

12/20/2007 2:21:03 PM

exactly. and like i said, i can just imagine if the class isnt broken into 2 sections for many schools, by the time my kids are in school, the most recent events they will cover will have possibly happened before I was even born.

12/20/2007 2:28:03 PM

its sad that immigrants know more US history then most Americans. They should make all American citizens take the naturalization exam regardless of if they were born here or not

12/20/2007 2:49:28 PM

i would imagine you can only teach so much, just like any other class?

[Edited on December 20, 2007 at 2:52 PM. Reason : the naturalization test is a fucking joke]

12/20/2007 2:49:40 PM

see, History is not just like every other class when it comes to this tho. Im an Engineer so I always enjoyed Math and Sciences courses 10x as much as History, English Grammar etc. However History is important, and it is one of the few *HS Level* classes that changes, and certainly the one HS class that changes more than any other..and by change I mean has constantly added material developing daily.

The laws and scope of Physics needed to be taught in HS are generally not changing, same with algebra, geometry, calculus, Literature, etc. New textbooks, new WAYS to teach, and some small advances in science do happen and thus new books are printed but its not the same.

[Edited on December 20, 2007 at 2:57 PM. Reason : ]

12/20/2007 2:56:37 PM

The main reason I heard was that you have to stop around Vietnam was because you have to have time away from an event to fully grasp what the event did and its end effects. I took a 20th-century history class with Dr. Fountain (is he still teaching, anyone?) and he pretty much told us this. We covered what happened in recent times, but were limited in causes, results, and end-effects of them.

12/20/2007 3:01:39 PM

I was in the Master's program for History here at NCSU and I had to take a whole semester on the historical profession, including some discussion of high school history classes.

And let me tell you, high school history is severely lacking in so many ways (and let it be known that I am not pointing the finger at the teachers). First of all, it's just one damn thing after another in a condensed textbook with a "master narrative." It's just brute memorization and there's no real historical controversy expressed in it (and History is all about controversy and interpretation, not rote memorization of names and dates). There is no in-depth discussion of any primary documents at all. While it is by no means a completely worthless class, it's basic purpose is to legitimize the values of whoever is writing the textbook, rather than to encourage students to think for themselves.

The only way I got through it was because I just happened to be interested in history DESPITE all those flaws. College level history is about 1000x superior to highschool history, although I will admit that the low-level gen ed classes can have many of those flaws as well.

12/20/2007 4:09:25 PM

I think my AP US History class got up to the Clinton administration, but I could be wrong, I just remember him being in the text book.

12/20/2007 11:44:13 PM

Quote :

"the naturalization test is a fucking joke"

Did you take it too? Is this why most Americans couldn't get 1 question right on it?

12/21/2007 9:53:46 AM

Like someone else mentioned, we concentrated so much on the civil war, and world war II that we just breezed through Vietnam the last few days of class, I was disapointed because to me Vietnam seemed to be the most intriguing.

12/21/2007 10:06:10 AM

^ It's also the most politically charged, therefore to not appear biased it's vaguely covered. You don't see many partisan arguments for World War I for example. Vietnam needs another 20 years or so before we'll get honest frank discussions about it for and against it, by that time most of the politicians and veterans that are tied to a position emotionally will be dead.

It should be covered more, but in this bulls*** culture of our country, politics trumps all.

[Edited on December 21, 2007 at 10:22 AM. Reason : .]

12/21/2007 10:21:47 AM

they should cover ww2 way less because you can see mountains on documentaries on it on the history channel

12/21/2007 10:22:58 AM

Quote :

"Did you take it too? Is this why most Americans couldn't get 1 question right on it?"

my wife took it, and its a fucking joke

not sure where you got this information from

The following are sample U.S. History and Government
Questions that may be asked during the Naturalization Exam.
Typical Questions
1. What are the colors of our flag?
2. What do the stars on the flag mean?
3. How many stars are there on our flag?
4. What color are the stars on our flag?
5. How many stripes are there on our flag?
6. What do the stripes on the flag represent?
7. What colors are the stripes on the flag?
8. How many states are there in the Union (the United States)?
9. What do we celebrate on the 4th of July?
10. Independence Day celebrates independence from whom?

12/21/2007 11:30:33 AM

Quote :

"3. How many stars are there on our flag?"

49

12/21/2007 11:38:13 AM

Quote :

"my wife took it, and its a fucking joke not sure where you got this information from The following are sample U.S. History and Government Questions that may be asked during the Naturalization Exam. Typical Questions 1. What are the colors of our flag? 2. What do the stars on the flag mean? 3. How many stars are there on our flag? 4. What color are the stars on our flag? 5. How many stripes are there on our flag? 6. What do the stripes on the flag represent? 7. What colors are the stripes on the flag? 8. How many states are there in the Union (the United States)? 9. What do we celebrate on the 4th of July? 10. Independence Day celebrates independence from whom?"

First the info I got is first hand. 2nd most if not ALL of those questions the average American cannot answer correctly.

And you forgot the other questions like who is your senator, house of representatives. Different branches of government etc etc. they don't just ask you to count stars

[Edited on December 21, 2007 at 11:43 AM. Reason : ,]

12/21/2007 11:42:36 AM

Quote :

"49"

It'll be a cold day in hell before I recognize Missouri.

12/21/2007 11:45:04 AM

Quote :

"2nd most if not ALL of those questions the average American cannot answer correctly."

that's ridiculous.

12/21/2007 11:51:47 AM

^indeed which is why its so sad that it's true.

12/21/2007 11:55:58 AM

i realize that there are some truly stupid americans but I'd really like to see where you are getting your information to draw a conclusion like that.

12/21/2007 12:06:07 PM

in h.s history we learn USA #1

12/21/2007 12:49:29 PM

^^google will net you the results you are looking for.

12/21/2007 1:38:38 PM

you're the one who made the claim

12/21/2007 2:34:35 PM

you're the one who questioned it

12/21/2007 2:49:51 PM

RAWR RAWR RAWR

KING DOUCHEBAG HERE

I AM AMERICA #1

CITING SHIT IS FOR SUCKAS

12/21/2007 4:14:37 PM

sorry, i took WRRD

12/21/2007 5:39:42 PM

lets make some more extreme claims about entire populations based on nothing

http://www.google.com/search?q=golovko+is+a+fag

oh shit it must be true

[Edited on December 21, 2007 at 8:21 PM. Reason : ^^ lol]

12/21/2007 8:21:40 PM

Throughout school I never got passed WWII, for the 60s and 70s the subjects were spilt up and a person from class did a presentation. ALWAYS. I ALWAYS did the Vietnam War cause I'd wear my dad's uniform to class.

12/22/2007 10:58:42 AM

it stings to know your population is ignorant to their own country's history, doesn't it, volex? What probably stings more is that you are 1 of those dumbfucks. enjoy.

12/22/2007 12:33:10 PM

I teach World History.....we just finished WWII and we are going to cover the Cold War when we get back from Christmas break. We will probably have time for one more unit after that, but the pacing guide only goes up to the Cold War, so I'm not sure what I'm going to cover in the last unit. All the other teachers are behind me, so most of them will end at the Cold War, or won't even get there.

12/22/2007 9:51:40 PM

it doesn't sting as bad when i think about how you came here because it was better than where you came from

12/23/2007 1:09:15 PM

my school we only got around WWII. But my professor was a genius and came up with a new idea to introduce the missing eras.

He had anyone he taught split into teams of 5-7 and we did a giant webpage on an era. (My group covered the 90's). You covered pop-culture, art, current events, important political figures etc. At the end of the year each group had 10 minutes to present, and the pages stayed up for awhile in case anyone was interested.

12/25/2007 9:55:56 AM

When I took APUSH in high school, the only thing I remembered from it was the controversial debates we had. That stuck a LOT more than just memorizing a bunch of dates. It also encouraged me to go out and buy "don't know much about history" and " a people's history of the United States"

12/25/2007 10:24:07 AM

high school was the same for me. spent like a month on WWII, then the last 2 days of class on 1960-now. Vietnam was barely mentioned

12/25/2007 10:36:29 AM

Quote :

"encouraged me to go out and buy "don't know much about history" "

That "Don't know much about history" was part of our required reading for AP US History

12/25/2007 1:43:10 PM

Yeah? My class, unforch, got scrunched at the end - so it was good for learning vietnam - current, esp for the AP Exam.

12/26/2007 11:47:02 AM