In my life, I've always made an effort to do my best in school. I've done quite well academically and as as result feel like in many fields I have learned quite a bit. However, I find that History is always something that I don't know very much about. It's not that I didn't pay attention in history class, it's just that I feel like there are some inherent problems in the way that history is taught in school. Every history class feels like it has to start as far back as possible. I can realize that if you are writing a history book that you'd want to start at the beginning, but it seems like someone should be explaining that students actually study history more than one time as they grow up, so covering the same ground maybe is a bit redundant. Allow me to elaborate by giving you the full extent of what I know about US History.
First, there were Indians here. Thats right, Indians. Native Americans if you will. They were here before Columbus came. I don't know if you knew that, but I suspect you probably did. Some famous ones include Pochantas, Squanto, and Sacajawea. Every single American History class I've ever had felt the need to make sure I was aware of that. We get it. They were here first.
Then Columbus came, and there were explorers from Spain and France and Britain and the Netherlands. Then the colonies were formed and we fought the British and won. Then we got our Constitution, and there was something called the Whiskey Rebellion and the Missouri Compromise. Then there was the Civil War. I'm sure something happened in between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War besides the Whiskey Rebellion and the Missouri Compromise, but that stuff seems to have escaped me.
After the Civil War is where things start to get pretty fuzzy. I know there was the Depression and the World Wars (I & II). But I think a lot of that I learned about after high school, as a result of watching TV and Movies. I pretty sure that most of my history classes never got to World War II, much less anything that happened after that.
So basically, in my mind, there was the Holocaust, and shortly thereafter Reagan was elected. I only know about Reagan and beyond because I lived through it. Doesn't it seem silly that every history class has to start at the beginning? No class ever makes it all the way through to those back chapter, except for maybe AP American History, but we didn't have that at my school, so I can't say if it did or not. Can you imagine if every math class started with counting, and covered the same ground as every other math class? It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Timeline:
Long ago - Indians were here
1492 - Columbus came with three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria
15?? - There was that island where everyone disappeared. (Roanoke?)
16?? - The pilgrims came and landed at Plymouth Rock and Squanto taught them how to grow corn, 1st Thanksgiving
1776 - Declaration of Independence
1787 - Constitution
17?? - Whiskey Rebellion
18?? - Missouri Compromise
18?? - The Gadsen Purchase
18?? - Civil War
1869 - Transcontinental Railroad Completed (It happened on the 10th of May in 1869, a wedding sealed with gold and silver nails. The Central Pacific...and Union Pacific...hugging and a-chugging down the rails.
194? - World Wars
1980 - Reagan Elected
1 comment:
well, you have to wait a few years for history to be rewritten before it can be taught. this whole gulf war ii is till being worked on as we speak. though i dont think anyone knows why it started at this point (WMDs? to liberate an oppressed people? it was the right thing to do? oil? to spread democracy in the middle east?).
i know what you mean though, i had a jr high teacher spend almost half a semester on the civil war. every battle, etc. but it seems like the reconstruction was just glossed over, and isnt that like 50 years? also, i never got past world war ii in any class. all i know is that people liked to wear 3D glasses around town during the 50s.
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