A couple weeks back there was a report finding only 13% of high school students in America really know their American history...and I've said before that was my favorite class in school even though I never got A's on it...but I was wondering how about everyone else? Did you like history? How did you do at it?

I don't remember much of it now but the parts that I do remember involved slavery, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, the Ku Klux Klan first in the 1700s and then the 1900s, the Holocaust and World War II and Anne Frank, and then Brown vs. Board of Education with the armed guards escorting the kids into the schools, I briefly remember there also being mention of Vietnam and then later towards the 90s with Clinton, but it seems after the 50s it blurs, and I don't remember where we started in history at the beginning of the book.

I do remember that we never read much of any section particularly, the most there ever was was about 10 pages and that was to cover all of WWII and Hitler and the Holocaust, everything else I think got between 1 and 5 pages. I wonder what it's like today. I wouldn't know because the kids here can't bring their books home because they're shared among several students and I don't recall them bringing home a history book to begin with when it's their turn.

Now on the radio when the 13% was being discussed they talked about things like the civil War and the Revolutionary War, but I wonder also what and how well do these students know about World War II or Vietnam? The boy next door said in class they watch movies about Vietnam, I don't know if he means like History channel documentaries or actual movies like Apocalypse Now or whatever, but I'll still bet he don't know what any of it was about. And his younger siblings ain't EVER gonna have a clue since they learned school isn't about learning, it's to play games.

It's no wonder when you think about it why some people fear for the future.

I was terrible at History. Yet I was asked to be in Advanced History Senior year. But it was more a writing class about historic topics, so my excellent English grades are what got me asked. I really did like that class a lot. There were only six or seven of us in there.

I loved it enough that I made it my major in university. I still love it! I was B+/A student throughout high school in history. In my second year history class at university, my prof handed back my end-of-term paper and I couldn't figure out why she had this huge goofy grin on her face and waiting right there while I checked my mark. Turned out I'd gotten an A - 85% and she was known for rarely giving out A's. She wanted to see my reaction. She's one of the top profs at the university. I have to laugh when I look back on it, 'cause I didn't know her very well. It was onyl later that I learned how tough she was and how rare A's were in her classes.

Not related to history so much, but see how you do on this survey. My Mom sent me the link ages ago and I was quit shocked by how poorly Canada did. I misread one question and got it wrong - #2. Probably shouldn't have been doing this while I was tired. Curious to see how you do.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/templates/question_1.html

Like TSJFan4Ever, it was my favorite subject and I did well in it. I do believe that, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", so based on your statistics we're fucked.

TSJFan4Ever wrote:

Not related to history so much, but see how you do on this survey. My Mom sent me the link ages ago and I was quit shocked by how poorly Canada did. I misread one question and got it wrong - #2. Probably shouldn't have been doing this while I was tired. Curious to see how you do.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/templates/question_1.html

I got 15 right, not bad, and I found like the test for my driving permit, the ones I just guessed on were usually right, and some that I thought were right were wrong.

20-20

It was make or break, depending on how interesting the teacher was....but it usually bored me.

hated it

I generally disliked Social Studies class, but did enjoy Anthropology (which largely dealt with history.)

I loved social studies and history. Always passed my classes with at least a B.

Shale wrote:

I got 19 of the 20 right. Missed the one on most ppl in a religion.

You answered Islam, didn't you?

I missed the religion one, too. For some reason, I thought it was asking what was the fastest growing region, not which had the most followers.