Idk maybe this was just my school experience (I grew up in Colorado and Wyoming), but it did really feel like American history classes just went "There was a colony at Jamestown in 1607, and they all almost starved to death but some of them survived and there was a Thanksgiving thingy somewhere idfk. Anyway, now we'll talk about the Revolution" lol
For other Americans, did your school talk about the colonial era at all?
by FeijoaCowboy
15 Comments
Yes we talked about the treatment of natives, expansion and trade, the various religous groups from the quakers to catholics, the French and Indian War then the lead up to the American Revolution.
I see post like yours all the time and I am not sure if my school just did their jobs or what.
Not really, no. Basically the same as you described here in Michigan.
The taxes we protested were raised to compensate for our defence in the 7 years war *thatwasstartedbyGeorgeWashington* but nothing really important.
Edit: Bro my comment riffing on Samuel Johnson got me warned by reddit.
heads up, PLEASE play the portal 2 community edition mod
Portal memes?? In this economy??
No? We learned a lot of the history in between, you just probably didn’t pay attention or were in a bad school system.
If this meme were about the decades from 1790-1830, I might be into it. Hard for the average student to name something other than the Louisiana Purchase or War of 1812, and even then it would be in painfully broad strokes. But the colonial era gets plenty of love, at least where I went to school and the places I’ve taught. Part of this is down to the nature of students and what they remember. Try to talk to them about tariff debates and internal improvements and… well… it’s not easy.
“History started in 1776, everything before that was a mistake”
Lots, actually.
Where did you all go to school, damn.
bait? simply not true
Nah we got stuff from the natives, ancient American history, and a large amount of it was colonial.
Tbh if there was anything that wasn’t taught, it was anything post-1945. Hell, besides the Holocaust, WW2 was an afternoon tops.
My AP U.S. History class didn’t focus on historical fights, but rather the conditions and politics that led up to them, along with the aftereffects and how the fighting changed various forms of technology outisde of the battlefield.
So I suppose I’ve a pretty taste for paradox, despite not having learnt what progress has been made specifically in modern gunnery.
I mean, it was basically Jamestown (with a little bit about Roanoke), Plymouth, little tidbits about how the other colonies were founded, French and Indian War, leadup to the revolution. So yeah, that’s basically glossing over a time period longer than the Civil War to today.
Sort of. In lieu of History classes, I had Social studies every year up until highschool. The colonial era pre American Rev. was mostly this, (with Plymouth colony instead of Jamestown), with the occasional mention of Thanksgiving, pilgrims, and the occasional native tribe mentioned (sometimes Cherokee, sometimes Iroquois, most times unnamed).
Yes, I learned quite a bit about the progression of the colonies, the differences in their origins and development and how that shaped them, their relations with the Indians, etc, all leading up to their collective disillusionment with Britain.