What do you remember from your American History classes in high school? (anything at all, I taught American History)

[Stuart G]

[Ocelot II]

1. Pretty much nothing. I barely remember being in the class at all.

I hated high school so much that I've probably repressed a lot of it. I remember choir and art class, which I liked, and my Latin class which I would have enjoyed if I hadn't been sent to the principal's office for laughing at the teacher, who resembled a large chicken. I remember biology because of the smell of formaldehyde-pickled frogs, and chemistry because we could set things on fire and create unpleasant odors. I remember some of the English lit materials, especially the dirty parts of Chaucer. But history? Nada. In one ear and out the other.

[Faux pas]

2. ...

How it all had a fairy tale like feeling. I'm pissed that I was lied to all the way thru school 1954-1967.

[Delmette2.0]

10. Same here. 1958-1971

[brewens]

3. We got the attack on the bonus camps from my history teacher. He was a pretty unusual guy. An old

school newspaper pro that I also had for journalism. He got to a lot of stuff not in our book.

[The Blue Flower]

4. "Things don't just happen!"

11th grade summer school history teacher who was passionate about us not just knowing dates and places but, more importantly, events that led up to the important things that happened.

[Cartoonist]

5. It was pretty much all about white men.

How they won the west.
I think there was one day we talked about women getting the right to vote.

[Deuxcents]

6. Not much. Memorizing dates that had no meaning

Didn’t teach me anything. I’ve learned more from the History Channel, PBS and reading books and articles than I ever did in school. I actually look forward to the documentaries that explain the events leading up to events and then the ramifications and how that affects us today. I’m a late bloomer baby boomer.

[wnylib]

43. Same here. I have learned so much more about history

from independent reading outside of school than I ever had in high school. I avoided history in college except for 2 classes. My anthro minor courses counted as equivalent social studies credits.

Our high school history classes alternated between American history one year and "world" history the next, from 7th grade through 11th. Grade 12 was civics.

"World history" was almost exclusively about Europe, except for brief mention of ancient civilizations in China, India, and the Middle East.

My 11th grade American history teacher was awful. He spent the entire year talking about his kids and his family's vacations. At the end of each class period, when he realized that we had covered no history, he assigned us lists of dates or people to memorize. When he told us to memorize the names of US presidents in order, I rebelled and asked what good it was without knowing what they did, what they were known for, what was happening in the country at the time.

His answer was, "Everything you learn makes your brain work. You gotta exercise your brain because it's a muscle that gets lax without use." I snapped back that the brain is not a muscle. It's a network of nerve cells that should process information and not just be used for storage like a file cabinet. He said that I was out of line and threatened me with detention or a trip to the counselor's office.

A friend said that my outburst had embarrassed her. I said that the teacher was an embarrassment.



.

[Iris]

7. In world History, we learned about different forms of writing.

A friend and I made up our own "language" using symbols.

[griffi94]

8. I learned the generally accepted story and the basic timeline

Of course, all of it was Americentric. Also, being in school in Texas it all had a pro-Texas spin on it.
In 7th grade we were required to take a Texas History course. It had a lot of sugar-coated stuff in it and taught the Lost Cause Myth about the Civil War.

[Midnight Writer]

9. I remember most of it. Had a very colorful teacher, one that would not pass muster today.

He would dress up in costumes, do impressions of the people we were learning about, and was very passionate about the material, racing around the classroom and getting students to interact with the material.

He was also generous with his time, and would set up after-school sessions for interested students, including bullet-point reviews of pertinent material before tests.

Unfortunately, his costumes included a Nazi military uniform, and he would put on a mustache and perform a rousing Hitler speech, encouraging the students to stand and give a Nazi salute and shout "Hiel!" And he would wear a feathery Indian head dress and do an impression of Indians that would be considered racist today.

As far as I know, none of his students were inspired to become Nazis because of this, but I can imagine the reaction if he was teaching today.

[MOMFUDSKI]

11. Not much. History Class seemed to be

about wars and that was not of any interest to a girly girl like me. Wanted to take Geography because I have a real interest in the subject but my doofus homeroom teacher wouldn’t approve what he considered a class for the stupid kids and that I was not one of them. To this day I will never forgive him for that. Hated history and now I see so many politicians ignoring it anyway.

[RobertDevereaux]

12. "Andrew Jackson killed the BUS [Bank of US]"

And she was in favor of that. Maybe 10th grade American History.

Not much else recalled from 50 years ago.

Needless to say, finding Howard Zinn’s book ten or twenty years later opened my eyes.

[snpsmom]

13. Watching films

In World History we watched Alfred the Great, which started my crush on Michael York. Pretty sure no one would show that now

My Honors English and History classes were cross curricular, so they had a lot going on that meshed. We read literature from/about the times we were studying, which helped us. But it's hard to parse what I actually remember from H.S. (40-ish years and two degrees later) other than the films and one specific lecture about Gettysburg.

[LiberalFighter]

14. I took Humanities for three years.

That covered world history. I took several courses of history which also included American History. I don't keep it all in my head but when I need it I have a general recall. And use it to challenge what some might try to pass off.

[bob4460]

15. I had a incredible US History teacher.

I hated learning about history until I took his class,now I am a history buff.He was a great teller of history and made it interesting to me and a lot of others said the same.

[ChazInAz]

19. So did I!

Unfortunately, he didn't teach at my school!
I hung out in one of those weirdo Beatnick, Hippy coffee houses that somehow appeared in my conservative Illinois town. So did Bill Truesdale, a Colonel Sanders look alike who taught the subject at another school. He was a flaming liberal and intellectual who became one of my closest friends, despite our huge age difference. I learned more world history from him than I ever did in class, and had a lifelong love of history planted in me. His family became a second, happier family for me.
He's gone, now, and I still miss him!

[Bayard]

16. I only took American history for some reason

What I remember most was the day Wounded Knee was seized by activists and occupied in 1973. My best friend and I did kind of a weak, "Red Power," with briefly raised fists. The teacher thought it was pretty funny.

[Freddie]

17. I had a wonderful teacher for American History

He was also the football coach! The year was for post-Civil War history, so many interesting topics that most of us kids had no idea happened. He was very careful to not take political sides except one time. The topic was Warren G Harding and Teapot Dome, and the year was 1973 - Watergate was in the news constantly. He just said “Republican administrations tend toward scandals”. Rest in peace, Mr. P.

[FailureToCommunicate]

18. I remember acing the classes by simply reading the assignments. The textbooks were outdated, and

had almost more pictures than writing. They seemed mostly the view from the victors: westward expansionists, religious zealots, and capitalists. This was the sixties, so we spent a LOT of time on current events (that are now 'history') such as the Civil Rights movement, Antiwar movement, etc.

One teacher DID suggest that if we wanted "other perspectives", we should read books such as Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, Ellison's Invisible Man, Terkel's Hard Times, The Feminine Mystique, Melman's The Permanent War Economy, etc etc.

(My parents, both WWll vets, were very much into history. They had a huge wall of books in one room that I'd sit near and peruse. My first and favorite book I poked around in was The Outline of History by H.G. Wells.

So, I guess high school history classes were okay, but I often felt like Hermione Granger, always with my hand up, waving, ignored.

Thank you for being a teacher.

[rsdsharp]

20. American history with G. Arthur Luther.

He wore the same maroon knit vest for 84 straight days. And he used to talk about a small handful of “Com-moom-nists.”

In world history we had a role playing game obviously based on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Groups of three or four students were assigned as teams to play various nations, and not just the US and the USSR. We were told at the beginning that if ANY nation committed a hostile act, it would result in nuclear war. After about two weeks, almost EVERY nation committed a hostile act on the same day.

[BluesRunTheGame]

21. I'm drawing a blank...

I went to high school in the mid 70s. I remember most of my classes and the teachers and can remember specific things that were taught. I don’t remember ANYTHING AT ALL about a US history class.

[appleannie1]

22. I only had 9 weeks of history in HS because when I was 16 I quit school and got a job to help support the family.

When I went to school, we studied American history in portions. For instance, in 8th grade, I studied Pennsylvania history, the state where I lived. It started at the very beginning with William Penn being granted the land that became "Penn's Woods". Actually before the king did that, Dutch had settled here. He founded Philadelphia in the 1600's with the Delaware river on the East and the Schuylkill River to the south. Waterways were the main means of transportation then and ships could bring supplies up the Delaware River from the Atlantic bringing needed supplies.
What eventually became the state of Pennsylvania was also sectioned into portions. North of Philadelphia, along the Delaware River, anthracite coal was discovered and mined. Slowly, but surely, people traveled west and other cities were formed, mostly along rivers. At first trading posts were established along the rivers and the new settlers traded with the many native tribes. Over time the settlers were encroaching on the natives and there were raids and homes were burned and people either killed or taken hostage. The European settlers also brought new diseases with them and the natives had no immunity to them so many died from things like small pox etc. Slowly they were driven further west as the settlers claimed more and more land.
Harrisburg was founded along the Susquehanna River in the early 1700's. It is roughly only 100 miles from Philadelphia. The river there is usually shallow and wide. There are places where you can almost walk across it. In the summer, when the river is low, you can still see people standing on the riffles fishing in the middle of the river in place. The Juniata River flows into the Susquehanna River just a bit north of the city itself. It was a perfect place to build a trading post because furs and things could be brought there by canoe or raft and beads, cloth and food supplies could be taken back home the same way.
By the mid 1700's the French and Indian War broke out and Fort Ligonier was built by the British. Next came Fort Duquesne at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers where they became the Ohio River in what is now Pittsburgh. Fort Duquesne became Fort Pitt. That provided a line of defense and a chain of supplies from the east of the state to the west.
I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa and still live close to it. I love this state and have visited all of the above places. Philadelphia was the first capital of this country. I have 3 ancestors that took part in the Revolutionary War, one at Valley Forge and the New Jersey campaign after they crossed the river.
Even though I quit school early, I loved my history teachers. They instilled in me a love of history and I have visited many battle fields, historic buildings etc. in my 80 years. I took a GED test when I was still in my 30's and they must have taught me well because I got a 98% score in the history part.
I was afraid I would not pass at all since it had been so long since I attended school and I could not take night classes because I had 7 children and lived in the country with no babysitters. I took the test cold with the intention of simply finding out what I would need to get books on to study after the kids went to bed and hubby left for work. No one was more surprised than I was at the score I did receive.
I think education has changed a lot since I went to school and I can understand why not as many people want to become teachers anymore. I have worked with college grads that could not spell. I find that sad. I realize I make mistakes but I do know that no one is two words and not noone. I also know there are 3 ways to spell there, their and they're and they each have a different meaning and serve a different purpose. I found it surprising when one of my daughters that was a senior did not know what I was talking about when on a trip I saw a road sign for Savannah and said "Savannah. Where Sherman ended his march" and she did not have a clue. She had never studied the Civil War in school. How can you be proud of or even respect a country if you don't know anything about it?
If you are a retired teacher, I guess you sometimes wonder too.

[REPUguy]

23. Listening to Bill Cosby albums

1966

[progree]

24. "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", also "Ma, Ma, Where's my Pa, Gone to the White House, Ha, Ha, Ha"

The first one is from William Henry Harrison in 1840

The second one from James G. Blaine in 1884 referring to the out-of-wedlock child Grover Cleveland fathered.

Another: "Keep Cool With Coolidge"

https://www.presidentsusa.net/campaignslogans.html

Actually I got a lot out of my H.S. history course.

And I feel memorizing dates is important, so one has something of a timeline and sometimes knowing whether something occurred before or after something else is important. Some people can't put the Civil War or Abraham Lincoln's presidency in the right century.

I had the course in late 1960's. John A. Garraty was the author of the textbook.

[mike_c]

25. Mr Rice

I can't believe your question immediately reminded me of his name and face. It's been a long time. Raised in the south, in only recently integrated schools, Mr Rice was my first black teacher. I remember him as a kind, generous man that everyone liked. Honestly, it's hard to remember where I learned the basics of American history, but I absolutely recall Mr Rice.

[Joinfortmill]

26. Worst teacher I ever had

Coached boys jv basketball. Learned nothing

[MLAA]

27. Same here. All I remember is the coach had us draw a cartoon as an assignment. A pretty girl I was

friends with in the class A on a really dumb cartoon.

[Joinfortmill]

41. Lol

[RamblingRose]

28. A high school teacher that would say she was from the "glorious State of Virginia" & taught it wasn't "The Civil War"

but "The War Between the States."

[OAITW r.2.0]

29. Rodney Quinn was my 7th grade history teacher.

He was some kind of CIA analyst in the early 60's who gave us a very interesting education on US/Vietnam history and politics.

He later became Maine Secretary of State.

[getagrip_already]

30. In public school, it was guido sarduchis 5 minute degree program

They taught you in 5 minutes what you would remember in 5 years. And not much more.

Private school was a different experience. I actually learned stuff there.

[bucolic_frolic]

31. Very very lttle. But I took about 6 ot 7 college courses, plus Poli Sci Political Thought

[Biophilic]

32. That white men did everything.

From Manifest Destiny to White Man’s Burden to the tragic but glorious men of the civil war thru all the marvelous presidents and all their glorious accomplishments. And that was Advanced Placement History in 1962. I seriously feel cheated and robbed of the truth. College wasn’t much better to be honest. I basically feel cheated of the truth. I lived much of my life based on propaganda. Ugh.

[mahina]

33. I had a fantastic history teacher in 7th

Who had us reading Studs Terkel for our semester on the great depression.

High school history- nothing, sorry man. We had a one year required American history class taught by a football coach, someone for whom it seemed the coursework was secondary to his role on the field. He was going through the motions and so was I. Got an A, remember nothing.

What stands out for you if I may ask?

[Stuart G]

38. What stands out for me? ....The students and their reaction to things.

You name it, and I saw it. I was attacked 3 times. Had a student let a mouse out in the class.
Had a student say, "Fuck You" to me. I was in a couple of riots where the students left the school.
There was a fire in the school once. (yes, a real fire) I was given nice gifts. and so on and on.

[mahina]

42. Yikes!

[keithbvadu2]

34. The teacher. He had a dry sense of humor. Sometimes it came out in the material.

[sorcrow]

35. Not sure

I don't remember specifically what I learned in HS and what I learned later. I liked the teacher and the class. My classmate, Mark, used to give a pen on test day so he could copy my work more easily.

What I do remember is our textbook. This was 72-73. The authors wanted be more inclusive, but didn't want to rewrite the whole book, so every few pages they added a black history sidebar. I learned a lot beyond the usual George Washington Carver and Crispus Attucks.

Historically yours,
Sorghum Crow

[usonian]

36. Nada. Only a Lou Monte song. What did Washington say when he crossed the Delaware?

1. "Give me liberty or give me death"—these words will never die.
"We have just begun to fight" is a famous battle cry;
But what I really want to know ain't written anywhere.
Hey, what did Washington say when he crossed the Delaware?
"...
...
Oh, Martha, Martha, wish you were here tonight.
Oh, Martha, Martha, no pasta fazool-a tonight.

2. "Martha baked these pizza pies and now they're cold as ice.
We'll sell them to the local folks at only half the price.
Please row a little faster, boys. I got no time to kill.
Tonight I'm posing for my picture on the dollar bill.
...
...
Oh, Martha, Martha, don't wait up for me tonight.
Oh, Martha, Martha, no Dardanella tonight."

The ellipses are Italian: (the way *I* heard it)

"Mme faccia 'nu fridd', mo tengo 'nu famm',
Mme faccia 'nu fridd', no tengo 'mu dann'."
[where "fridd'" is pronounced "freed" and is dialect for "freddo," or cold. Rough translation:"I'm freezing, I'm hungry, I'm freezing, I don’t have my long johns (mutante)"]

[Chainfire]

37. My high school history teacher was a WWII combat vet, he had served as a tank driver in Patton's army

during the Battle of the Bulge. Looking back now, I realize that he was a victim of the yet to be invented ailment we now call PTSD. He was a fabulous teacher who made history come alive but he was definietly a little whacky. I was very sad when I heard of his passing about ten years ago.

[GreenWave]

39. We were taught by a Greek who challenged my Macedonian knowledge.

But the crowning glory was when a true pal, upset with all the Kennedy assassination conspiracies gave a speech on how many "coincidences" there were between his life and both the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations.

After he finished I stood up and said words to the effect, "I think I speak for all here. Joe Schmo (not real name) we have known each other since grade school. I don't know how you did it, but I am going to place you under citizen's arrest for the murders of John Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln."

[peacebuzzard]

40. I loved the course.

I have always enjoyed reading anyway and I devoured the history book like a novel. I have always been a bookworm so it was an easy class for me. The teacher was very polite and treated me very well, I suppose I may have been the only attentive student. It was my first time in a huge high school in the states since I attended school overseas until this one semester. I was new; only there for fall semester, so I really had no distractions other than waiting until the end of the fall semester so I could go back overseas. I only made one friend, although I engaged easily with many. In that class I only had conversations with the teacher, I remember she was tall with long blonde hair and wore glasses. The class really had me interested in history and a year or so later I enrolled in a political science class in college which I really enjoyed as well.

[Historic NY]

44. Well actually quite a bit, then again I was in AP American History

and this was back before the bi-centennial the group of us help shape a curriculum of instruction on local Revolutionary war history for the district. I've been a municipal government historian for 26yrs and that has been a challenge. Mostly what I learned was research and fleshing out the facts. I don't think there is a day that doesn't go by that some topic or question comes up. I deal with those Dusty old documents of the past. Outside my regular job over the years, I've been a restorer, builder, researcher provided for several made for TV productions and a collector of documents and items from our past. It had been a lot since in 1492 Columbus sail the ocean blue. Funny thing is I still run across one of my old teachers....

[ShazamIam]

45. I already loved U.S. History but I remember I loved the class because Mr. Johnson was a great teacher.

It was more than what he taught it was how he handled the difficult, sometimes disruptive, tough boys, in class, firmly but fairly.
And he let me make a deal, if I got an A on all tests but didn't turn in any homework, I would get a B grade. He allowed and I got the B.

edit: Ii to if.

[DemocraticPatriot]

46. We viewed graphic film of the atomic bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki...

That certainly made the greatest impression.... it isn't something you forget.

[ificandream]

47. American History was one of my favorite subjects (and was my second ... journalism was my major)

My favorite topic in American History was the Revolutionary War. I was living in Massachusetts in those days, and we were within driving distance of Boston, Lexington and Concord. Being on the Concord Bridge was one thing I really remember.