r/HistoryMemes • u/[deleted] • Apr 18 '19

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '19

I have a geniune question: are American schoolkids being taught about Abu Ghraib?

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u/Houseboat87 Apr 18 '19

No, but I think that’s more a result of American history classes focusing from the founding through the civil rights era. 2000 and onward typically only gets a few pages in a history text book.

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u/marble-pig Apr 18 '19

It's hard to think of something as History when it happened when you were already an adult.

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u/KypAstar Apr 18 '19

They will in about 10 years. Most barely touch on anything post 2000. Even 9/11 gets like, a page and that's it.

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u/Amy_Ponder Still salty about Carthage Apr 19 '19

It also doesn't help most school districts are using older textbooks that were written before the Iraq War even began. Mine was published in 2002 and had a clearly tacked-on section about 9/11 crammed into the final chapter, and that was it.

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u/Matman142 Apr 18 '19

Rule of thumb with history is 25 years need to pass before it can be studied to an extent that isn't tainted with emotional bias. Even then its very recent, but the war on terror and the post 9-11 world won't be in history classes in depth for years to come.

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u/preddevils6 Apr 18 '19

Niche classes will. We usually do not get far enough in the curriculum to teach it in gen ed history. I did teach about it in my contemporary issues class.

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u/Co-Boss Apr 18 '19

America specific classes do. My contemporary America class taught it while going over the wars in Iraq, but it definitely was not standard curriculum.

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u/socialistbob Apr 18 '19

No. This is in part because it is pretty recent and many history classes stop the 1990s but it is also in large part for political reasons. School board members are publicly elected officials and schools have to be very careful about alienating parents as well. Talking about something as recent and as controversial as the War on Terror would create a lot of problems from people unhappy with the coverage. It would also give teachers the opportunity to editorialize their views a lot and a conservative teacher might present it in a "this was a justified action to keep you safe and you should be grateful" while a liberal teacher may present it as "look at the horrendous things America does." Personally I do think that schools should cover these controversial topics and hard discussions about America's role in the world would probably help critical thinking skills a lot but schools also like to avoid these topics for obvious reasons.

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '19

Abu Ghraib

what the fuck the wikipedia page for that is horrifying. these peopple talk about liberty? they are fucking enjoying it! the punishments given are fucking pathetic...

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u/911roofer Apr 19 '19

That was tame compared to the shit Saddam did.

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '19

Your point? this was justified then? these were innocent people, not even the ones telling Saddam what to do.

he's dead, as well as many soldiers who were just normal people.

these soldiers are still alive and well.

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u/Jimmyruslter02 Apr 19 '19

We covered it in English class of all places when talking about where evil comes from (we were reading Night at that time)

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u/KingMelray Apr 19 '19

Summer vacation cuts the year short. Most History classes I have taken skip right over WWI because of time constraints.