On Sat, Jun 04, 2005 at 05:08:24PM +0200, Jimmy Wales wrote:
<POV>
If I had to criticize the way history is taught in the US, it is not
that students are not taught _anything_ about other countries, but
rather than they are taught about other countries in a way that tends to
suggest that other countries are out there somewhere, but don't have a
lot of importance for us except that sometimes they start to fight with
each other and we have to go make them stop.
</POV>
I have a great many issues with the way history is taught in US public
schools, and most of them deal with the way American history is
(mis)taught. Heh. A clear indicator is the fact that American history
textbooks tend to have titles like "Rise of a Nation", whereas chemistry
books tend to be called things like "Principles of Chemistry". To
paraphrase someone else (whose name escapes me at the moment), I've
never seen a chemistry textbook titled "Rise of the Atom".
I do share your difficulty with the dismissive attitude taken toward
other nations' histories in public education. I just tend to believe
that's a mere symptom of a pathology in the way American history is
taught.
--
Chad Perrin
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