Current Events > What do people from England learn about the American Revolution?

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Is it like a quick 5 minute lesson or is it a chapter?

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1NfamousACE_2 posted...

a quick 5 minute lesson

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I wonder if they include the part where George Washington clapped as he burned tea bags?

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Besides learning how they got involved in WW1, I don't remember America coming up in our history lessons at all.

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alphagamble posted...

Besides learning how they got involved in WW1, I don't remember America coming up in our history lessons at all.

gasp!!

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Tbf America was like one of a billion colonies
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Don't remember learning anything tbqh.

we dont

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Probably about the same amount of time the south spends covering the Civil War.

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Were_Wyrm posted...

Probably about the same amount of time the south spends covering the Civil War.

From the south, can confirm civil war lesson in grade school was maybe a 1 week chapter each grade.

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They get really mad at how we wasted a lot of tea.

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Were_Wyrm posted...

Probably about the same amount of time the south spends covering the Civil War.

In high school we spent time on the Civil War

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g980 posted...

Tbf America was like one of a billion colonies

For you, the day you declared independence was the most important day of your life. For England, it was Tuesday

domranguay posted...

For you, the day you declared independence was the most important day of your life. For England, it was Tuesday

It was actually a Thursday in the US, so that's impossible.
https://www.dayoftheweek.org/?m=July&d=4&y=1776&go=Go

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Eliza3 posted...

It was actually a Thursday in the US, so that's impossible.
https://www.dayoftheweek.org/?m=July&d=4&y=1776&go=Go

Timezones mate. They were much bigger back then.

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Eliza3 posted...

It was actually a Thursday in the US, so that's impossible.
https://www.dayoftheweek.org/?m=July&d=4&y=1776&go=Go

Are you implying England had to follow the American calendar? How americentric. The date was actually Tuesday 12 Grune in the Year of the Lenient Vegetable

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Funkydog posted...

Timezones mate. They were much bigger back then.

Then what day was it then Mr. Scientist?

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About the same amount of time the US spends on the Native Americans/First Nation people.

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Eliza3 posted...

Then what day was it then Mr. Scientist?

Tuesday. The day you tried to correct. We were five days ahead back then, and now only 5 hours ahead (of EST)

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They're not gonna teach the kids about their embarrassments lol

It's not seen as particularly important in England.

We didn't cover it at all when I was at school. I've also never taught anything about it.

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Judging by the responses ITT, it's still a pretty sore subject lmao

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spikethedevil posted...

About the same amount of time the US spends on the Native Americans/First Nation people.

They spent a lot of time on Native Americans in my school. But I grew up near Plymouth, and it was mostly focused on local tribes and my man Squanto.

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Were_Wyrm posted...

Probably about the same amount of time the south spends covering the Civil War.

You mean the War of Northern Aggression?

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Were_Wyrm posted...

Probably about the same amount of time the south spends covering the Civil War.

So... a lot.

You know why the South carries around Confederate flags? Because they cant carry around their Civil War book collection. The South loves talking about the Civil War.

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spikethedevil posted...

About the same amount of time the US spends on the Native Americans/First Nation people.

So... one day before Thanksgiving? Actually, we spent a lot of time on Native American studies when I was in school and that was the early 90s.

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They betrayed the motherland.

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Well, all their ancestors were too chicken to get on the boat. So you can see whyd they gloss over that.

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<_<

this is a good topic

Background_Guy posted...

They're not gonna teach the kids about their embarrassments lol

Those are the best bits though :(

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IloveJesus posted...

It's not seen as particularly important in England.

We didn't cover it at all when I was at school. I've also never taught anything about it.

It only resulted in the creation of the nation that the UK has been working under for the last 70 years

g980 posted...

Tbf America was like one of a billion colonies

TBF That's a pretty reductive argument, considering America (And especially the cotton industry of the South), was a very important exporter of wealth to England, alongside the industry and agriculture of India and the sugar exports of the West Indies. There is a reason why England's influence in the world slowly but steadily declined in the 1800s and 1900s, and by the time India gained their freedom they had already been entirely supplanted by the USA, Soviet Union, France (Briefly), Japan (briefly), and soon the Chinese.

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I know there's a lot of English history, but one would think that a small amount of time would be spent on the loss of the American colonies given that it was a pretty big loss for the empire that had to be made up for with gains in India. Not to mention America eventually taking over the UK's role as the world's superpower.

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1NfamousACE_2 posted...

Is it like a quick 5 minute lesson or is it a chapter?

Why the hell would it be a whole chapter?

Obviously it's one of many topics that's tackled when touching upon the history of the British Empire; but it's not seen as being in any way impactful upon British history, any more than India's independence is. In other words, it's your history -- not ours.

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I'm thinking "how can they not teach about the American revoltuion? Having a colony fight a war for independence from you is a pretty big deal!" but then I remember how little was spent on the Philipinne-American war in school and now I'm like "yeah, I get it."

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Funkydog posted...

Tuesday. The day you tried to correct. We were five days ahead back then, and now only 5 hours ahead (of EST)

Source? @Funkydog

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Ivynn posted...

I'm thinking "how can they not teach about the American revoltuion? Having a colony fight a war for independence from you is a pretty big deal!"

There's comparatively little taught about England's much older and much more troubled relationship with Ireland, where British rule (largely) ended far more recently.

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Firewerx posted...

There's comparatively little taught about England's much older and much more troubled relationship with Ireland, where British rule (largely) ended far more recently.

Seems the above user was right and England generally doesn't like talking about their failures.

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Funkydog posted...

Timezones mate. They were much bigger back then.

Also there was that whole Julian-Gregorian transition going on.

AmericaTheBrave posted...

Seems the above user was right and England generally doesn't like talking about their failures.

I've seen how uncomfortable, irritated and defensive many Americans tend to get whenever someone brings up how the pages of US history are grubby with dirt and stained with blood. I don't think it's a uniquely British trait.

We don't normally whitewash our failures so much as highlight particular case studies, maybe at the expense of others. I would say that practically every discussion about the history of the British Empire in school textbooks from Key Stage 3 onwards will talk about the decline of the Empire and independence from British rule in India and Africa (and yes, America).

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Background_Guy posted...

It only resulted in the creation of the nation that the UK has been working under for the last 70 years

I think you're overstating how important the US is in the minds of the average English person. It's a curiosity, sometimes entertaining for the right reasons and sometimes for the wrong ones, and it gets more exposure than most other countries, but that's it. We don't think of Americans as our overlords, we think of them as the fat nation that didn't understand that a third of a pound is bigger than a quarter and that is obsessed with guns.

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Eliza3 posted...

Source? @Funkydog

The Queen.

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Funkydog posted...

The Queen.

So, your ass. Noted

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Eliza3 posted...

So, your ass. Noted

...Well that's a sour note to end what I thought was a joking exchange.

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What about American colonial history? How much is taught in American schools about the cultures that the settlers transplanted from the British Isles to North America, that shaped their folkways and their institutions?

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