sad but true-- NYC makes a point of not teaching "conficts" in all (including HS)history classes-- so Viet Nam war is glossed over-- since the current crop of teacher are likely to have differing views of the conflict(and creating new ones in the classroom)
they just started to teach about the irish potato famine...7 years ago. There was a strong anglophile group involved in education, and most irish went to parachial (RC) schools.. but since the curriculum was for the state.. and the RC schools used the same books.. that little bit of history simply got recorded as " a record number of irish immigrated to US starting in 1848 and for the next 20 years.." with never a mention of why.. or what was happening in ireland at the time..
most of the history of israel is not taught.. there is a single line. "israel was founded in 1948.." not any history of ottoman empire, english influence, confict with Arabs... all just not mentioned.. just a little bit about european jews moving to mid east post WWII.
if you want your kids to know history, you have to teach it to them your self, or recognize they are not getting the full story. i suspect other school districts do some of the same..
maybe Jazzo can give us some info..
how much of VN war was covered?
or Cold War? and fall of Berlin wall?
was the irish famine covered? or the ottoman /kurd genoside?
or in central africa, what do you know about patrice lumumba, and the congo?
the last is one i am schetchy about.. all i was taught about was lumumba was a communist (and the was a code word for being as evil as satan,) and he murdered 8 nuns. the CIA involvement, and all the other politics (colonial power, explotation of resourses, ethic groups in the area.. all just ignored.. i know enough about it, to know, i don't know enough
