I have always wondered...

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Platapus

I just wished it were a bit more balanced. History IS the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I understand that a government wants children to grow up feeling proud of their country and frankly most younglings lack the maturity/wisdom to understand that good people sometimes to bad things and that applies to governments too.

A while ago I was talking with some of The Frau's daughter's friends (all in their early 20s) about American history. Some of them were self-identified history buffs. When I brought up Indian "Removals" of the mid 1800s and the alternating government position on Mexican labour in the early 20th century, they were astonished. None of this had been even mentioned in their history classes. They never learned about Cuba and the Philippines around the start of the 20th century.

And forget anything worthwhile about the Cold War.

But they sure learned a lot about the Civil War..Oh boy that got that covered... well almost.

No one can ever learn all the history of the US, and I don't expect a school to spend all that much time trying to cover 200+ years. But I would like to see some balance to reflect the good, the bad, and the ugly that makes up US history.

I think understanding the transgressions of the US will make it easier to understand the transgressions of other nations.

We all wear grey hats. Some a little lighter, some a little darker, but all grey.

I agree with you here(and the others that posted similar sentiments) history is always "stylized" when you learn it in school.Then if you learn it post secondary it usually is still not 100% objective but from one slant or another.No one side is "perfect" or righteous in the end world wars are (generally speaking) several hundred thousand young men being told to kill several hundred thousand other young men for "freedom" in some shape or form.