[oceanplexian]

Most American schools do not teach the federalist papers, or civics at all.

I went to high school in New England, where we at least covered the basics like the Boston Tea Party, Revolutionary War, Constitution Convention, etc. However I only read the Federalist Papers after buying a copy as an adult.

[ajkjk]

They were covered in AP US History, but not the non-AP version.

[poulsbohemian]

You comment is just 12 words long, but speaks volumes as to the problems of these United States. Even AP US History (or its college equivalent) is a fucking joke for how little information it conveys. So we've got a tiny portion of the country walking around with even the most basic understanding of how we got here, with the majority of the population having even less understanding of history, politics, civics being spoon fed an endless stream of propaganda from any source with the ability to publish it, all completely untrained in how to synthesize and interpret.

[ajkjk]

IMO AP US History was really, really good, in terms of how much material it covered. I could scarcely imagine more material being taught in a year-long course for a high schooler. Granted, the material should be more common knowledge, but given that it isn't, mostly I was impressed.

I'm sure you can go deeper on that stuff but , like... we memorized every president and vice president, and what they ran on and what issues they faced, etc; it was _pretty_ comprehensive. To be fair my school taught AP US quite well, I think they had an 100% pass rate. But a high-schooler with no knowledge of the world, economics, labor, culture, science... and especially European history which moves in lockstep with American... can only understand so much. It would take a much more comprehensive (and, arguably, ideological) course to convey the history of the nation in much greater depth than that class did.

[paulddraper]

Even if their contents are not studied, they are well known.

Even more so after the Hamilton musical.

[brightball]

I got into reading history as an adult primarily because of how little I was taught in school (or at least, how little I remembered). History didn’t seem nearly as relevant when I was younger as it does now.

Reading about it now and realizing just how much people know that isn’t accurate or is misleading is shocking.