You might find some tiny encouragement seeing E.D. Hirsch's "Core Knowledge" curriculum efforts.[1] I don't see it on the reference page, but I have seen accoun

You might find some tiny encouragement seeing E.D. Hirsch's "Core Knowledge" curriculum efforts.[1] I don't see it on the reference page, but I have seen accounts of first-graders really taking to culture-and-civilization (and picture book) focussed units around "Ancient Egypt" etc. IIRC, E.D. Hirsch, in his book Cultural Literacy, related a conversation with educators. He offerred that children should be able to name and identify Earth's continents. As he reports it, the reply as if with disbelief was "Why would anyone need to know that." [1] https://www.coreknowledge.org/curriculum/history-geography/ https://www.coreknowledge.org/curriculum/history-geography/