That’s not an “America Bad” thing, it’s just fact? That’s the explicit reason for the entire framing of western history in American classrooms. We start with Egypt, then the hand the torch over to the Greeks, then they hand the torch to the Romans, then the Dark Ages (spoooooky), then the Renaissance, the British Empire, and then the USA. It’s one of our foundations for American Exceptionalism
I see where you’re misunderstanding here. It’s not the studying, it’s the specific western-centric framing that I’m talking about. Unless you spent a lot of time talking about the Ottomans? Or Aboriginal Dreamtime?
I don’t think your history experiences sound very typical. I didn’t have anything about the Egyptians outside of pyramids in elementary school, very little Greek mythology, and then nothing about the Romans (beyond a bit about how they had good tech like aqueducts), dark ages (maybe a little about the plague and feudalism), or Renaissance. Did you go to a school with extra history requirements or something?
Noooo, I went to, like, 6 different elementary schools to two different states, all in pretty low income areas. This was pretty consistent. But this went well beyond elementary school. When you took world history in high school, what did that look like? This was pretty consistent. And it wasn’t just history, this was all blended into English classes and stuff too
That’s not an “America Bad” thing, it’s just fact? That’s the explicit reason for the entire framing of western history in American classrooms. We start with Egypt, then the hand the torch over to the Greeks, then they hand the torch to the Romans, then the Dark Ages (spoooooky), then the Renaissance, the British Empire, and then the USA. It’s one of our foundations for American Exceptionalism
Sudying Greek history and mythology merely for the sake of propaganda and as a through line to exceptionalism is not a fact, no.
I see where you’re misunderstanding here. It’s not the studying, it’s the specific western-centric framing that I’m talking about. Unless you spent a lot of time talking about the Ottomans? Or Aboriginal Dreamtime?
I don’t think your history experiences sound very typical. I didn’t have anything about the Egyptians outside of pyramids in elementary school, very little Greek mythology, and then nothing about the Romans (beyond a bit about how they had good tech like aqueducts), dark ages (maybe a little about the plague and feudalism), or Renaissance. Did you go to a school with extra history requirements or something?
Noooo, I went to, like, 6 different elementary schools to two different states, all in pretty low income areas. This was pretty consistent. But this went well beyond elementary school. When you took world history in high school, what did that look like? This was pretty consistent. And it wasn’t just history, this was all blended into English classes and stuff too