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I was in highschool in the United States 20 years ago, and middle school just before that. We learned a wide range of history, including every war the USA has

I was in highschool in the United States 20 years ago, and middle school just before that. We learned a wide range of history, including every war the USA has taken part in (for example, the american revolution). At no point did textbook or teacher make any assertion about the morality/immorality/justice/injustice of any particular side in any of them.

b_tterc_p 8y ago
Did you learn about the time we used cavalry and tanks to repel 43,000 of our own WWI veterans who were protesting their lack of promised bonus payouts, killing a couple of them in the process? See the “Bonus Army”. You can avoid moral stickers but still be biased if you selectively choose which events to dive into.
- DiffEq 8y ago
  I did - and I was in high school 30 years ago. When I asked my dad about it; he also knew about it.
- virusduck 8y ago
  I learned this too, in public high school in the south. Did you not receive this in your education?
jemfinch 8y ago
I also went to high school in the United States 20 years ago, and have parsed my experience very differently than you. There were many morality and justice declarations about everyone but the United States, and then just...silence about the morality of US actions. They wouldn't say the US did wrong under any circumstances. I didn't learn about the firebombing of Dresden from History class, I learned about it from Vonnegut. I may have learned about the bombing of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in my history class, but their moral dimension was summed up by "It made Japan surrender," which is ahistorical bullshit. I didn't learn about the Tuskegee syphilis experiment at all, nor much at all about the racial prejudice that dominated American culture for a hundred years after the civil war (and continues to have lasting effects today). American History as taught in US high schools is hagiographic, make no mistake about it.
- mac01021 8y ago
  It sounds like maybe not all US high schools follow the same curriculum. Mind sharing what state you were in? Surely you learned about the Trail of Tears, Slavery, and the Vietnam War? Here in New England I can tell you that I came out of 10th grade admiring Ho Chi Minh and despising Andrew Jackson.

b_tterc_p 8y ago

Did you learn about the time we used cavalry and tanks to repel 43,000 of our own WWI veterans who were protesting their lack of promised bonus payouts, killing a couple of them in the process? See the “Bonus Army”. You can avoid moral stickers but still be biased if you selectively choose which events to dive into.

DiffEq 8y ago
I did - and I was in high school 30 years ago. When I asked my dad about it; he also knew about it.
virusduck 8y ago
I learned this too, in public high school in the south. Did you not receive this in your education?

jemfinch 8y ago

I also went to high school in the United States 20 years ago, and have parsed my experience very differently than you. There were many morality and justice declarations about everyone but the United States, and then just...silence about the morality of US actions. They wouldn't say the US did wrong under any circumstances. I didn't learn about the firebombing of Dresden from History class, I learned about it from Vonnegut. I may have learned about the bombing of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in my history class, but their moral dimension was summed up by "It made Japan surrender," which is ahistorical bullshit. I didn't learn about the Tuskegee syphilis experiment at all, nor much at all about the racial prejudice that dominated American culture for a hundred years after the civil war (and continues to have lasting effects today). American History as taught in US high schools is hagiographic, make no mistake about it.

mac01021 8y ago
It sounds like maybe not all US high schools follow the same curriculum. Mind sharing what state you were in? Surely you learned about the Trail of Tears, Slavery, and the Vietnam War? Here in New England I can tell you that I came out of 10th grade admiring Ho Chi Minh and despising Andrew Jackson.