Voland

I went to school in Germany and my memories are the following. History education started in the seventh grade ( second year of High school / Gymnasium).
We went more or less chronologically through everything, starting with the Stone Age, passing ancient Greece, Rome etc. along the way and worked us up till the Middle Ages.
Since german history can´t be reasonably separated from that other european countries our approach could more or less be described as "continental" history, with the only country outside Europe playing a major role beeing the USA. But the most time is usually spent on the history of the twentieth century from the second empire till the European Union and Germanys role in it. The history of the Holocaust lessons normally include visits to concentration camp memorials and if possible interviews with time witnesses. Time witnesses for Germanys second dictatorship are even less difficult to find and together with the history of the EU that falls under "contemporary history". And by that time you are supposed to have been graduated from High School.

Drake Equation

...Odd statement but I suppose some major aspects of WWI did occur outside of Europe.


I know quite a bit about the British history program and I think that content-wise it is very weak. 80% of the emphasis seems to be on writing and thinking skills (which are of course good), but unless I'm mistaken required history educated ends at age 14 in Britain and the lineup of topics is narrow and has no apparent logical structure.

Arab League

i come from Egypt, and our history is pretty humongous compared to other countries, i mean, it started thousands of years ago,
so we have to know about Pharonic and Potalimous history,then we have learn about the Islamic conquests in North Africa and Western Asia, we also have a year where we are taught world history in general, afterwards the history courses tend to be concentrated on the Arab Medievel era, with the Crusaders, Mongols on one hand and Abbasids, Zengids, Ayubids Dynasties. later on we take courses called modern history of Egypt which is the period from the Ottoman era till today.. with Napoleon's invasion to Egypt, Mohamed Ali's massacre to the Mamlukes, pan-Arabism spread to the Arab World, WW1, WW2 and the Role of the Egyptians, Egypt's Independance from Britian, Arab-Israeli Conflict ending with the 1973 war

sadly tho we don't have concentrated History courses, due to two things, the first is that the history is just too big to be educated in several years,
the other thing is that the education system in Egypt is pretty bad..

as for the rest of the Arab world, it is probably the same, with small differences, like in lebanon they teach phonecian and roman history instead of Pharonic, they teach about Lebanon's civil war, etc...

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sergie_sun

So, I guess I am the only person who is happy with the way of teaching history at schools. Even though as we say that Russia is the country with unexpected history.
Also, I can compare the education system in New Zeland and in Russia and I would say that personaly I was quite disappointed at the Auckland University. Everything is well organized but they dont teach students how to learn and what is going on. So, the idea is if you have trouble with your paper you should come and talk to us. But how would i know whether i have problems or not.
Also, in Russia it is very important how students perform during the semester. And the marks you get during the semester will affect your final grade. So, if student was very active during the semester but during the exam he or she was not that good it is almost impossible to fail your paper. Sometimes you dont have to do your final exam if you were very good. And also, after each lecture we have tutorials and it is very important for students and you can get very good marks for that.

hbloms

In Denmark we learn about several different countries and their history, but especially the impact it had on Denmark and parallels drawn to current situations.

Now i'm a 9th grader which means that i'm on my last year in school. I'll be going to the US after summer.

List as i remember it:

Kindergarden: None

1st grade: Loosely the entire history of mankind. Stoneage (Along with fieldtrips to see the leftovers frome the ice ages, Middle Age (Viking Age mainly 'cause we're in Denmark), Renaissance (American colonization and Napoleon mainly), 20th century (World Wars and Cold War).

2nd grade: Stoneage closely. More fieldtrips and such.

3rd grade: WW2. Out learning why we're still clearing landmines in southern Jutland and what those big concrete things on the beaches are.

4th grade: Middle Age/ Viking Age. Visiting local museums, churches and the remnants of a monestary. Out seeing the beacons they used to signal for the army to come (anyone seen the Lord of the Rings?).

5th grade: More WW2 and a bit from 1 (the first one was just seen as the reason for the second). Learning about Denmark during the war mainly.

6th grade: More Middle Age/ Viking Age. Doing the same stuff over again just with bigger brains and the ability to multiply. Visiting smithy and making giant weird iron 'needles' (in need of a better word).

7th grade: Yet more WW2. This time focusing on the war itself instead of Denmark. Also going to an island in the baltic to see the only Danish soil freed by russian soldiers. Nice graveyard with Hammer & Sickle on the monument.

8th grade: American colonization and Renaissance. Seeing the pictures of Copenhagen burning after british bombing.

9th grade (current grade): Learning about the Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War and current stuff. Just writing a paper on American Militias. New World Order and all that shit. Watched Moores 'Bowling for Columbine' to learn about americans and guns and 'American History X' to turn us from racism or sumthin'.


We've learned about America and the UK in English classes. All the material we read are about those two coutries and their view on us. Did UK in the lower grades, currently on USA.

The focus is mainly on applying your knowledge about history to todays issues so you can say: WOW, can't believe they did it again...

Alba

How did you remember all that??? I have trouble remembering much about what I learnt in school. Then again, it's been a while.

1st grade: We learnt some current history (not so much), and we had to know who the president of the USA was. I knew. We probably learnt about the Norse (Vikings) too.

2nd grade: I think we learnt a bit of current history then too.

3rd grade: Not sure.

4th grade; Not sure.

5th grade: I think we learnt about WWII and the Norse. We also watched the movie "Titanic", but I doubt it was for very educational purposes....

6th grade: More WWII I think. Maybe Denmark-Norway union.

7th grade: I think we started learning about political history, Denmark-Norway union, Sweden-Norway union.

8th grade: Religious history (mostly Christianity), Middle Ages, probably some Renaissance. Some US history.

9th grade: More as in 8th grade I believe.

1st year gymnasium/secondary: More political history, social history, WWII, post WWII, reconstruction of Norway, British literature and some British history. Industrial Revolution in Britain and elsewhere (Spinning Jenny etc.).

2nd year gymnasium/secondary: More as in year 1, US history.

3rd year gymnasium/seconday: More as in year 1 and 2.

College: US (Mayflower Compact, black history) and British history.

To be honest, I don't think we had an overwhelming amount of history in school. I think we focused mostly on Vikings, Renaissance, Industrial Revolution, WWII (not much on WWI where Norway was neutral), Denmark-Norway union and Sweden-Noreay union, and some US and British history, mainly related to 1776, slavery, blacks, Native Americans, Industrial Revolution and WWII.

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Slartibartfas

In Austria the history lessons are sadly very Austria centric.

The prehistoric stuff is pretty standard I guess, when it comes to early high civilisations I learned about Mesopotamia and especially about Egypt, Greece and later on Rome in detail. Then came the fall of the Roman empire and the Völkerwanderung.

After that the Frank empire in detail and than we are already at it, Ostarrichi exists and thats where the focus remained from then on. First the Bamberger dynasty and then the entire history of the Habsburger dynasty in very detail. Other European powers were taught mostly in the context of the own country.

I can't remember where and how the colonisation and imperial age was taught, but it was not really that much of a focus.

As highlights of the last 250 years, of course the French Revolution and Napoleon was a big issue, the Viennese congress, then after internal stuff in Austria again, already WWI, 1st republic of Austria, Anschluss, WWII, occupation and thats pretty much it. The recent history of the 2nd Republic of Austria was taught in political education.

Additionally I can remember to have learned about jewish history, especially of the modern state of Israel.

I hope I have not missed out anything...



Thats it for the history lessons, we learned however a bit about the history of other countries in the geography classes as well. However only in a rough way.

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MHaggis

In Norway we are taught about all the major historical time periods (The Antiquity, Medieval, Industrial Revolution etc) as well as every major revolution (French, American, Russian). We also have one whole eyar learning about WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. The Norwegian history is what we learn the most about, however.

All in all you can say that we learn about mostly everything of importance

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AzTeK

Our teacher unfortunately did not make an effort to draw parallels to current situations in our history class, which I regret. I find it admirable that you do were able to get that sort of education. I only recently and out of my own interest starting drawin the lines between different events and how they are similar and could be avoided by knowing what went wrong in the past. It really is fascinating.

I believe history is worthless if you don't do what I mentioned above, and I am starting to understand why in school I always felt history was one of the most boring subjects. Sure, the whole stone age and similar stuff is interesting from a pure curiosity standpoint, but most of it is just useless knowledge in my eyes - with some exceptions though

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hbloms

I forgot to mention that Religious history was taught in Christianity Class (yeah, i know).

I've also just realized that we've never really had anything about Asia, including Russia, except for the WW2 stuff... And cold war stuff as Vietnam and Afghanistan...

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