US school system report

[bsblady01]

So when "should" world history be introduced in your opinion?

here we do world history in 9th and 10th grade

 

[LBIJim]

Many terms used as descriptors change over the years.

Yes, they do. 48 years ago the film called the Inuit in either Yukon or NWT "Eskimos." The film itself is probably over 60 years old. Nothing pejorative was intended, my apologies.

 

[Wendy31]

In middle & high school, I took world geography (7th grade), state history (8th), civics (9th), US history (10th), world history (11th), & government/economics (12th). However, I don't remember learning much about Canada besides where to locate it on a map.

We started homeschooling when our DD was going into 5th grade & our older DS was going into 4th grade. For the first couple of years, we used an accredited DVD program. I remember being shocked at all the geography they were learning - not just labeling countries & continents, they were labeling the rivers & mountain ranges & islands of the world in addition to major cities & capitals. For Canada, they learned the provinces & territories, cities, & rivers, etc. I remember telling DH, "We NEVER learned any of this in school!"

This year, as an 8th grader, DS took civics while DD, in 9th grade, took US history w/ geography. Next year, we're going to do world history & geography.

So I feel pretty confident that DS & DD are learning history & geography beyond the United States. They don't know a lot of specifics beyond the geography of Canada, but I know they realize it's not a dictatorship. And we hope to learn more next year.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

I don't know much about Canada. I probably know more than the average American but I know that's not saying a lot. I should know more but I don't. To be fair, I don't know much about Mexico either.

 

[Jedana]

They're too busy teaching them how to take a test than learning material.

DD2, in 7th grade, spent a month learning how to fill in circles on the answer sheet for the state mandated test.
No, I'm not joking. I'd ask what test they worked on that day and she'd say "no test---just practicing filling in the holes".

 

[Luvchefmic]

A co-worker thought French was the predominant language in ALL of Canada.

I told my husband that if a particular politician became president in the next election I was throwing my hands up in disgust and that he better prepare for the idea of packing up and moving to Canada. Those were his very words last night.

I think I probably learned more about Canada from my family as we had relatives that lived in Messena NY about 100 miles from Ottawa and we would visit during the summers. We would cross over to our friendly northern neighbors many times. Never remember Canada being mentioned in school at all and that is sad.

 

[morgan98]

I have had an opportunity over the course of my life to spend time in Europe and am close to several relatives who live there (my mother was born in Italy). This is my opinion on the matter.

We are Americans are very America-centric. When we travel overseas, many expect to speak English, etc. I find Europeans (I will speak to them, since that is my experience) to be much more knowledgeable about current events throughout the world and able to speak more than one language. And I am not only talking about the very educated. The newscasts seem to discuss more world issues in depth, etc. People want to discuss current events much more regularly too.

There just seems to be more of a "global" focus.

 

[leebee]

In the elementary grades, the US spends too much time concentrating on passing standardized tests to teach a whole lot about anything other than math, reading comprehension, and writing skills. It's sad, but the kids in the K-5 where I teach don't know much of anything about geography, history, or even science. When you look at the daily schedules, it's all math and ELA (English Language Arts, to include reading, writing, comprehension, grammar, spelling). Social studies and science are taught as offshoots of the reading program, but in reality they are "if we have time to squeeze it in" subjects. I was looking at a 3rd grade schedule just yesterday, and it's sad. The kids are in school from 8:20-2:35, so basically 6 hours. During that time, there's an hour for lunch/recess and an hour for the daily "special" (art, music, computer, etc.). Morning board and two bathroom breaks take up another 45 minutes. The rest of the day is split among reading, spelling, math, and writing. NO dedicated science, history, geography, etc. NONE. Now, I know these are elementary school aged kids, but my friend who teaches 3rd grade said her kids can't identify the USA on a globe or pick out states. They don't know that Washington, DC is the capital of the country. There is SO much that is being ignored and bypassed in many US education systems these days, because we are so focused on new ways of thinking about math and ELA to align with Common Core and Smarter Balance Assessment (but that's only this year's "flavor of education;" it'll be something equally distracting and overblown in another couple years) that there isn't TIME for anything else. I, personally, believe we stopped truly educating kids about 20 years ago. It's all become one edu-babble concept or another. Heck... how many kids know why they have Monday off from school, what/when Flag Day is, etc. We are woefully under-educating our kids about their own country's geography and history; is it any wonder they don't know anything about Canada?

 

[Colleen27]

I was thinking this.. Is World History taught?

Not until high school and not in any real depth. Think "all of human history outside of the US in a one year course" - literally everything from Mesopotamia through modernity, in 180 days. A lot gets left out, especially about those nations like Canada that don't directly figure into the key events being covered. An average kid at my son's high school has learned more about ancient Greece or 20th century German politics than about the foreign country that is just two miles from the school's door.

 

[Dizlvr]

They're too busy teaching them how to take a test than learning material.

DD2, in 7th grade, spent a month learning how to fill in circles on the answer sheet for the state mandated test.
No, I'm not joking. I'd ask what test they worked on that day and she'd say "no test---just practicing filling in the holes".

I'm in my 40's, and never learned anything about Canada when I was in school, other than where it was located on the map.
It has nothing to do with tests, its like what Colleen27 said.

My son in 6th grade is covering world history now, ancient civilizations.

 

[declansdad]

Yes, they do. 48 years ago the film called the Inuit in either Yukon or NWT "Eskimos." The film itself is probably over 60 years old. Nothing pejorative was intended, my apologies.

I didn't think you meant anything by it, just wanted to point it out in case you ever travelled way up there.

 

[SirDuff]

Anybody remember the Rick Mercer tv special called "Talking To Americans"? OMG, I'm basically wetting myself just thinking about it...

I loved the end of the special he did (it was also a regular part of his weekly show). At the end, Rick was talking a boy (maybe about 10) and the boy's mom and grandmother. I don't remember exactly what he was trying to get them to say, but it was something about states (maybe asking them how many states we have?) and the two women made very bad guesses. The little boy looks at Rick (as if Rick were an idiot) and says "But Canada has provinces, not states!" I'm sure that that boy would have answered the test question correctly!

 

[gottaluvPluto]

Schools do too much testing and don't have enough hours to teach kids everything. History is a subject that we have to add to it all the time, so teachers can't teach everything about it. Heck, I remember reading an article about a debate on what should be dropped from history curriculum.

Parents are also their child's teacher and they should pick up the slack and help educate their kiddo about the world.

 

[jodifla]

I was in school from the mid 60s through the 70s. From what I can see, there was much more focus on social studies then. I had it every year as its own subject from 7th grade on, and we spent a lot of time with it in class in 6th grade as well. I don't think Canada gets studied as much, though, as countries in the EU, South America and Africa.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I have had an opportunity over the course of my life to spend time in Europe and am close to several relatives who live there (my mother was born in Italy). This is my opinion on the matter.

We are Americans are very America-centric. When we travel overseas, many expect to speak English, etc. I find Europeans (I will speak to them, since that is my experience) to be much more knowledgeable about current events throughout the world and able to speak more than one language. And I am not only talking about the very educated. The newscasts seem to discuss more world issues in depth, etc. People want to discuss current events much more regularly too.

There just seems to be more of a "global" focus.

This is precisely the point about apples & oranges comparisons I was making earlier. Of course Europeans speak multiple languages. It's out of necessity. How many languages are spoken in Europe? I don't know the answer, but I know it's more than in North America - a lot more. If the countries in Europe were as large & as few as what we have in North America, odd are the average European woukdn't know much about what goes on outside their borders either.

 

[morgan98]

This is precisely the point about apples & oranges comparisons I was making earlier. Of course Europeans speak multiple languages. It's out of necessity. How many languages are spoken in Europe? I don't know the answer, but I know it's more than in North America - a lot more. If the countries in Europe were as large & as few as what we have in North America, odd are the average European woukdn't know much about what goes on outside their borders either.

I get what you are saying...but there really is a different attitude. They take more of an interest in a global perspective of things, at least in my opinion. Yes, one can argue that of course they need to speak other language because countries are close together. We assume that other are going to speak English.

Another example of what I am trying to explain in on a post on the cruise board. Someone wants to know if US Dollars are accepted in St. Petersburg, Russia. I mean I am not going to say absolutely, never ever, but really? Do we accept Russian currency in the US?

 

[IDoDis]

I live in New Mexico and it's alarming how many people in America think NM is part of Mexico! If you watched the last season of The Bachelor when they were going to visit Santa Fe Megan said, "I've never been to New Mexico, but I hear it's beautiful, like a beach-resort place. You know, they have sombreros, and everyone is so excited ... I've never been out of the country."

Yeah, we deal with stuff like that ALL the time. ESPN recently had one of our NCAA basketball teams listed as Mexico on the rankings. US online websites with maps list the state as Mexico or leave the state off completely and show the whole area as Arizona. When people come to visit they ask at the airport where they can change their money. I could go on and on.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I get what you are saying...but there really is a different attitude. They take more of an interest in a global perspective of things, at least in my opinion. Yes, one can argue that of course they need to speak other language because countries are close together. We assume that other are going to speak English.

Another example of what I am trying to explain in on a post on the cruise board. Someone wants to know if US Dollars are accepted in St. Petersburg, Russia. I mean I am not going to say absolutely, never ever, but really? Do we accept Russian currency in the US?

Some could be attitude, some just isolation. The US is after all physically much further from a lot of the political upheaval Europeans discuss.

U.S. currency is accepted in many places, particularly places where their own currency may be volitile. So, I don't know that that's necessarily a silly question.

 

[morgan98]

That same question has been asked about European cruises that go the Italy, Spain, France, etc. These countries, like Russia, are established first world countries. In general, they use their own currencies.

Europeans discuss America, Asia, etc. We are as far from them as they are from us,, yet still know what is going on.

I am really not trying to be argumentative, but we, as Americans, have excuses and reasons for why we do not know more about the rest of the world.

 

[LBIJim]

I didn't think you meant anything by it, just wanted to point it out in case you ever travelled way up there.

About 15 years ago, when the new territory of Nunavut was carved out of the Northwest Territories, I wanted to be among the first US citizens to visit. Mostly so people could say "where the hell is THAT?" when I told them where I went on vacation. I'll bet fewer than 5% of US citizens ever heard of Nunavut.

I live in New Mexico and it's alarming how many people in America think NM is part of Mexico! If you watched the last season of The Bachelor when they were going to visit Santa Fe Megan said, "I've never been to New Mexico, but I hear it's beautiful, like a beach-resort place. You know, they have sombreros, and everyone is so excited ... I've never been out of the country."

Yeah, we deal with stuff like that ALL the time. ESPN recently had one of our NCAA basketball teams listed as Mexico on the rankings. US online websites with maps list the state as Mexico or leave the state off completely and show the whole area as Arizona. When people come to visit they ask at the airport where they can change their money. I could go on and on.

That reminds me of a story I read before the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Someone from New Mexico wanted to buy tickets for some events and called the information number. They were told they'd have to call or go to the official Mexican website to inquire.



My company hires a lot of foreign college students to staff stores during the summer, mostly from Eastern or Southeastern Europe. Many of them are well aware of some of the most minute details of the US political system, or have knowledge of American issues that are unfamiliar to many US citizens. Yet many of their American co-workers probably never even heard of Latvia or Macedonia or Moldova.