[Wikipedia-l] US Education system (was NPR interview)

[Chad Perrin]

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
[ CCD CopyWrite | http://ccd.apotheon.org ]