TIL: Today I Learned

[Samson]

TIL: More than one million Uighur Muslims are estimated to be in detention in "counter-extremism centres" in China's far west, the vice chairperson of a United Nations anti-discrimination committee has said, citing credible reports.

"Another two million have been forced into so-called re-education camps for political and cultural indoctrination," she added.

 

[Tigranes]

TIL: Defeat of ‘Communist Japan’ Proves U.S. Is a Great Nation

Spoiler Source: :

‘Fox & Friends’

 

[Dachs]

guarantee that that messes a bunch of kids up on their 10th grade state world history assessment this coming year

 

[Synobun]

guarantee that that messes a bunch of kids up on their 10th grade state world history assessment this coming year

"Dad, I have a really tough report to write on the Pacific Theatre in WW2. Can you help?"

*Patriot Father loyally remembers what the Fox News professors told him*

"America defeated the communists. No doubt."

"The Russians, dad? Weren't they our allies?"

"No, son, that was the Cold War. We beat Communist Japan first."

Well, at least there'll be a history student shortage in higher education in a few years.

 

[rah]

Do they still teach history in 10th grade? From talking to the younger generations, it seems that they don't anymore.

 

[Lexicus]

They do, but history is probably the worst-addressed subject in American public schools. Partly because it is kind of difficult to calibrate - how do you explain things in a way that students can understand that isn't so dumbed-down as to be useless? But also because historical topics can be c o n t r o v e r s i a l (for obvious reasons -can't teach about the horrors of slavery when most of the parents in the district and the school board are neo-confederates) the default approach is to just not address anything that some parent might complain about.

 

[really]

TIL young men (18 - 25) in in the USA are required to register for a potential draft with the 'Selective Service System' when they turn 18 or risk missing out on random benefits for the rest of their lives.

 

[Farm Boy]

Yar. The draft generally isn't opt-in sort of thing for citizens when it's active, I would figure. Got two pieces of mail on my 18th birthday. One was my Selective Service card. The other was a brand-new Gilette Mach 3 razor. The card expired. I still use the razor.

Wife just figured out why I'm nervous of a specific range of years coming up when she realized I was mapping it against our son.

 

[Lexicus]

TIL:

 

[Dachs]

Do they still teach history in 10th grade? From talking to the younger generations, it seems that they don't anymore.

Yes, they do. History classes are still mandatory in high school.

Many older Americans exaggerate what claim to have learned about history before graduating from high school when they compare it to what the youngsters learn. I mean, Ainsley Earhardt isn't a millennial.

 

[rah]

I had 4 semesters of History in HS. I remember it as being pretty comprehensive. but then that was 50 years ago, so what the heck do i remember.

 

[Synobun]

I had 4 semesters of History in HS. I remember it as being pretty comprehensive. but then that was 50 years ago, so what the heck do i remember.

I'd be surprised if schools that are less well off today even have 4 semesters worth of history to offer to students.

My school (Canada, of course) had 2 semesters of history to offer: general history and ancient civilizations.

 

[rah]

I'd be surprised if schools that are less well off today even have 4 semesters worth of history to offer to students.

On the surface, this sounds silly. 50 years later, we have less history.
But I get what you mean, I think.

 

[Dachs]

I had 4 semesters of History in HS. I remember it as being pretty comprehensive. but then that was 50 years ago, so what the heck do i remember.

*shrug*

Students in this district get 6 semesters of history (4 world history, 2 US history) and 2 semesters of polisci/history of US government. There's a world history state assessment at the end of 10th grade, a US history assessment at the end of 11th grade, and one for US government at the end of senior year. Basically all of those courses are required.

"Comprehensive" is a funny thing, as regards history.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Behold! The Last Blockbuster!(TIL there is only one left!)

Standing unpretentiously in the car park of a petrol station at a busy intersection in Oregon, this Blockbuster is the last one still open in the US.
The store in Bend, Oregon, is a franchise and became the last one after two independent locations in Alaska shut down in July.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45175194

 

[Hrothbern]

I had only the first 4 years of secondary school history. In the last two years keeping history would mean I had to drop one of my natural science or math subjects, which I did not do.
The nice thing about that was that my lessons at school did not go further than just before WW1.
The history periods until WW1 were covered reasonable objective. Though it was a bit biased to the Judaism-Greece-Roman superiority.
Others that did the modern period in their last 2 years were exposed to a lot of biased BS.
The idea that history had to be politically and societally relevant, in a simplified way, made it into a hobby area of the teachers you had.

 

[Zkribbler]

*shrug*

Students in this district get 6 semesters of history (4 world history, 2 US history) and 2 semesters of polisci/history of US government. There's a world history state assessment at the end of 10th grade, a US history assessment at the end of 11th grade, and one for US government at the end of senior year. Basically all of those courses are required.

This conforms with the requirements I had in my California high school decades ago.

 

[Synobun]

On the surface, this sounds silly. 50 years later, we have less history.
But I get what you mean, I think.

I meant financially. Can't offer classes if you don't have the funding and teachers for them.

 

[rah]

*shrug*

Students in this district get 6 semesters of history (4 world history, 2 US history) and 2 semesters of polisci/history of US government. There's a world history state assessment at the end of 10th grade, a US history assessment at the end of 11th grade, and one for US government at the end of senior year. Basically all of those courses are required.

"Comprehensive" is a funny thing, as regards history.

There was never any question of whether a HS graduate could pass the test for citizenship back then. From what I understand, that is no longer the case, but I'll let those with more current knowledge on that correct me if they don't think so.

 

[sophie]

They do, but history is probably the worst-addressed subject in American public schools. Partly because it is kind of difficult to calibrate - how do you explain things in a way that students can understand that isn't so dumbed-down as to be useless? But also because historical topics can be c o n t r o v e r s i a l (for obvious reasons -can't teach about the horrors of slavery when most of the parents in the district and the school board are neo-confederates) the default approach is to just not address anything that some parent might complain about.

I mean, they're also super broad. My 10th grade history class was "AP World History". How on Earth do you teach "all of world history" in 10 months??