Ignorance in the classroom

[benol]

In australia, we are taught that americans are stuck up and don't learn history of other countrys, myth or not?

Another question. Are you actually taught this in school, or do people just talk about it?

[Felino]

Hey, thats what our history teachers have taught us (maybe not using that wording) but yes, they do.

[Nonsense Man]

This girl in my 7th grade World History class thought that Alaska and Hawaii were directly below the US and this school is in the US.

[vskid]

Do americans learn any history other than their own?

In australia, we are taught that americans are stuck up and don't learn history of other countrys, myth or not?

In 9th grade I had World Geography, which pretty much taught about the cultures and beliefs of other nations (but I had a stupid teach, we were probably supposed to learn something else). The in 10th grade (last year) I had World Civilizations, which was about the history of other countries, largely focusing on European countries and their colonies (like Africa and India). Not too in depth, but not bad. Now I'm in US History, bet you can't guess what we're learning about.

[bicostp]

In australia, we are taught that americans are stuck up and don't learn history of other countrys, myth or not?

We hardly learn about the history of our own country, or at least the 20'th century. Every year we start at the pilgrims, then we hit the revolutionary war, then a couple chapters later we hit the Civil War, then BOOM summer vacation. <img src="http://www.skytroniks.com/images/databa ... es/wtf.gif"> Every. Stinkin'. Year. Kids of the future will remember the colonies, but the Korean war, the Watergate scandal, the first gulf war, Vietnam, and the beginnings of the trade embargo with Cuba will be long forgotten. (Well maybe except Cuba... if you watch old "I Love Lucy" episodes, they sometimes talk about a Cuban vacation.)

Fun fact: I learned more about history from The History Channel than I did from history class.

[timmeh87]

this one is in questionable taste so modes feel free to take it out... but...

in grade 11 religion class we were discussing some of that "Family life" stuff (ie sex) and some ditzy popular girl was heard to exclaim out loud: "I thought you could only get AIDS from butt-sex!"

[teraflop122]

I thought this thread was about ignorance in the classroom, not perfectly knowledgeable teachers/students making jokes to appease the class/attract attention...

Here's a great example of epic ignorance from my high school days. About three weeks into AP Calc, some girl decided she just couldn't do it. She went to the counsellors to have herself moved to an easier class, but they couldn't. Apparently the classes had all been in session to long for that to work (BS, but meh). So what does she do? She sits in calc, doing absolutely nothing, every day of every week of the whole year. She didn't even bother trying. If that wasn't enough, she kept asking people to do job drug screenings for her (one way or another).

Also, maybe not ignorance but definitely arogance, the calc teacher had the nerve to tell us we would most certainly fail if we didn't do the homework. Of course, our grades came from the tests alone. Homework wasn't collected. I did the homework for a week or two, then stopped. About half the class proved her wrong. Silly teachers.

[gamemasterAS]

Well I'm in 9th and I'm in world Studies learning about the French Revolution at the moment. Middle school history was mainly US history though, like in 8th we learned about the American revolution and the Civil war.

I have so many stories from my 8th grade social studies class that are all from things that 1 girl said that I think I could never remember them all.

[benol]

In australia, we are taught that americans are stuck up and don't learn history of other countrys, myth or not?

We hardly learn about the history of our own country, or at least the 20'th century. Every year we start at the pilgrims, then we hit the revolutionary war, then a couple chapters later we hit the Civil War, then BOOM summer vacation. <img src="http://www.skytroniks.com/images/databa ... es/wtf.gif"> Every. Stinkin'. Year. Kids of the future will remember the colonies, but the Korean war, the Watergate scandal, the first gulf war, Vietnam, and the beginnings of the trade embargo with Cuba will be long forgotten. (Well maybe except Cuba... if you watch old "I Love Lucy" episodes, they sometimes talk about a Cuban vacation.)

Fun fact: I learned more about history from The History Channel than I did from history class.

I agree with the History Channel thing, but not the other. Are you saying that you never learned about The Great Depression, WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, The Roaring 20's, ect? I did. It's in my 1500+ page History book.

Also, in 6th grade World Geography I, we learned some about early Europe, but not much.

The Classes I have taken:
1st-5th grade: Social Studies
6th grade: World Geography Part I
7th grade: World Geography Part II
8th grade: Georgia Studies (Might as well have been renamed "Civil War Studies")
9th grade: World Geography (6th and 7th rolled into one)
10th grade: U.S. History

[benol]

, maybe not ignorance but definitely arogance, the calc teacher had the nerve to tell us we would most certainly fail if we didn't do the homework. Of course, our grades came from the tests alone. Homework wasn't collected. I did the homework for a week or two, then stopped. About half the class proved her wrong. Silly teachers.

I never do homework. And I pass! It doesn't help you with anything. I have never studied either.

[SavageLych]

Hay benol, try taking ap us history and then see if you pass that without studying. Its basically the students all reading a book and taking notes for a whole year. One day in ap us we were talking about population sizes, then the subject got to birth controll back then, and some girl yelled somthing about anal sex...funny thing was we had a hotdog cooker in the room that day...

[Sparkfist]

Unfortunately for me the dumb people keep their mouth's shut.... now when they talk to me their mouths are wide open.

As for history being taught in the US. In middle school and high school I had classes where we touched on on other nations but anything that went very far was typically ancient history. Thinks like the Greeks, Romans, Mesopotamia, Egypt and China, I think only one class touched on history in Central/South America.

I'll say this though American's being called arrogant don't compare to what your teacher said (more of less), Felino.

[Rekarp]

, maybe not ignorance but definitely arogance, the calc teacher had the nerve to tell us we would most certainly fail if we didn't do the homework. Of course, our grades came from the tests alone. Homework wasn't collected. I did the homework for a week or two, then stopped. About half the class proved her wrong. Silly teachers.

I never do homework. And I pass! It doesn't help you with anything. I have never studied either.

Yah wait to you get into College. You WANT to do your homework then.

[soundwave]

Do americans learn any history other than their own?

In australia, we are taught that americans are stuck up and don't learn history of other countrys, myth or not?

Not that i subscribe to it.

We learn the equivalent of:
In 1492 America was discovered, made into colonies owned by Britain, France, and Portugal.
In 1776 American was made free country.

I don't think I've ever learned anything about the Australians, Africa, or Asia. And anything I've been taught about Europe (even now in History of Modern Europe in college) has been very minimal.

[DK]

Our biology teacher is really sarcastic to one girl in our class. He spent 10 mins taking the piss out of the girl because she asked if mermaids were real.