As a member of the American educational system, I can safely say that it is functioning to the level of most of the people in it. It just so happens that a large majority of my classmates seem to be total morons.
Still, I've never heard of the "not teaching the Civil War" thing before. It's taught in North Carolina at least, and people tend to consider that part of the Deep South. Although NC did go blue state last election...
NC schools are far better than most of the ones in the South (although state funding on public ed is dropping like a rock since the recession hit and the GOP took over the legislature).
Several years back, the Georgia Board of Education did an adjustment to the state curriculum that basically split high school US history into two chunks: Colonial Era to 1861, and 1865-modern day. When people pointed out that the Civil War might be relevant to a state that...y'know, was largely BURNED TO THE GROUND during said war, the response was "Oh, they'll have covered the Civil War in 5th grade history."
I remember 5th grade history. It was what I like to refer to as "Action Figure US History". I'm pretty sure you're not going to get really deep discussion over the issues of slavery, states' rights or a multi-dimensional view of Lincoln (or the Confederacy, for that matter).
As a related tangent, I came across a recent press release that said a thinktank study gave Georgia the second highest rating on their history curriculum, praising its "balanced treatment of the Civil War". I boggled. Then it said that the top score went to South Carolina. That's when I knew something had to be up, as most South Carolinians I've met think the war isn't over yet.
Turns out the thinktank, the Thomas Fordham Institute, is a right-wing group that exists pretty much to scream "liberal bias in education!" nonstop, and author laughable studies like that one.
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Topic: Things that made you sad today thread. (Read 9750113 times)