I don't know how representative my 9th grade American History class was, but if memory serves, "Current Events" was the last chapter in a long textbook. We barely covered anything in detail, having run out of time and it being the end of the school year, but even if we had kept to the schedule, the chapter covered everything since WWII - the rise of communism, wars in korea and vietnam, the bay of pigs, the kennedy assassination, reagan, thespace race, challenger, aids, etc. That's a TON of stuff all given short schriff and I don't see how gay marriage fits, or if so, how it could be anything more than a one or two sentence blurb in a paragraph on legislative trends (which is slightly less than the paragraph we may have received on the formation of Israel).If we are going to teach history, we need to teach things that are important. You want to understand more about gay history? Take a class on it in college. Gay civil rights will be discussed in high school, as will gay marriage. Other smaller issues, just to pander to a group? Should not happen... nor should it happen to ANY group.
Needless to say, the only kids who knew any post WWII history were those that took the elective class on current events (where this topic makes much more sense), which meant that you missed psychology, anthropology, geography, or one of the other electives.
Perhaps it will be a more important topic in history 20 years from now, but I just don't see it in 2010. I think one could argue that we're still living or have yet to live what may be the most significant history.
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