Originally Posted by CMon

During my last two years (that'd be the 12th and 13th grade numerically) we have been through the subjects; Ancient History, rise and history of China and Asia, Vikings, Feudalism, The Middle Ages in Europe, Exploration Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Colonization and de-colonization, World War I and II, the Cold War period and recent norwegian politics. Although that's probably a few levels above standard grade history.

The history we learnt when I was a wee bit younger usually revolved around the western world, and a lot of it could be tied to Norway. It's easy to see the importance of learning about heritage and such, but it shouldn't be exclusive as it's easy to become egomaniacs with poor walking vision. I must admit that up until the 10th grade or something I thought that most muslims were bad. Needlessly to say, I was horribly misinformed.

Originally Posted by CMon

First note: I'm not making this thread to bash America. This is a discussion thread, not a rant.

Many online internet forums have large concentrations of Americans in their user base. Toribash alone consists of about 38 % Americans (statistic provided by GMan80). Still, like everyone else, since they're under 50 percents they can be defined as a minority, and you should think that they would be required to explain their country as a result. Yet, American terms are taken for granted. And, as an example, there's a large number of young people so high school and college stories are abundant. To non-americans, many of these institutions are not understood, yet Americans use the words as if everyone understands. They rarely explain them, if not to say never. Educational systems vary a lot from country to country, but the American educational system goes without explanation. Why is this?

Number 1: Americans are a bit arrogant. Some will assume that most other people are aware of how things work in their country. This applies to both education and other things such as economy and politics. Nobody should deny that America, if not the sole numero uno, is one of the most prominent nations in the world. As a consequence, Americans may assume that outsiders automatically take interest in America and has knowledge about it. If people lack the knowledge, it's their duty to go learn something. Thus, they don't have to explain anything when they are talking on forums. If people don't understand what they're talking about, it's their own fault.

Number 2: Ignorance. It's similar to arrogance but this is based on the assumption that people know everything because of their position in global society. The difference, though, is that they don't regard people that don't understand America as badly-informed, but they just have false assumptions on outsiders' knowledge.

Number 3: Forgetful and lazy people. They are well aware that someone might not understand the terms but are too lazy or forgetful to explain it, effectively leaving out a large number of people from the discussion.

Number 4: Asocial people. They don't need to explain themselves. If somebody doesn't understand a post, it's not much of a loss to these people. The majority of people are American so they understand. The need to befriend a Frenchman isn't particularly huge, especially if he doesn't understand the workings of America. Sticking with your American mates is completely legitimate and there are more than enough Americans to keep a discussion running.

And now, let me specify again that this is not an "I-hate-america" post.

Thoughts and discussion, go.

Originally Posted by jaatb1143

generalizations. nothing but opinions and generalizations. plus, if you don't understand what those "arrogant, lazy Americans" are talking about, there's a lovely device called google. I use it quite often, and just because you're not American, doesn't mean you have the right to not use it. I don't consider myself lazy, and I don't brag about how great America is... so you don't have the right to speak on behalf of all of my people. I highly doubt you know what it's like to be an American.

Originally Posted by OrAclE

I noticed that most of my American counterparts (Canadian in America) tend to zone out during social studies courses other than psychology. I don't think as much emphasis is placed on social studies than something like math or english.

While admittadely I didn't do all that well in U.S. History, I still did better than everyone else in the class. Especially when it came down to the geography aspect. Most of them had trouble determining which countries were on the Axis side and Allied side in World War 2 (biggest blunder: Japan on Allied, Germany neutral, Russia Axis). They had even more trouble locating them on a map (One guy mistakened Russia for Germany). The only thing they were good at were dates, which they remember with weird, math related tricks.

Though I'm happy that the older students in my school have forced interest into the subject because they realized, kinda late, that there's a world outside of America competing against them. So it's starting to get a little more attention.

Originally Posted by jaatb1143

generalizations. nothing but opinions and generalizations. plus, if you don't understand what those "arrogant, lazy Americans" are talking about, there's a lovely device called google. I use it quite often, and just because you're not American, doesn't mean you have the right to not use it. I don't consider myself lazy, and I don't brag about how great America is... so you don't have the right to speak on behalf of all of my people. I highly doubt you know what it's like to be an American.

Originally Posted by jaatb1143

I agree, Our government is the most fucked part of the country, but we can't do anything to change it. I learn most of what I know from my own research, so my government can't rot my brain as easily as they would like to. Also, my school hasn't even mentioned the war of 1812 since I was in 4th grade (or fifth year if you're European, you're welcome).

Originally Posted by Renkai

Also; I've found that some American school systems have actually started to cut out the part in their history, when they lost or tied. As an example; The war of 1812 (I think) had no winner, and they started to say they won it. It was tied, The Treaty of Ghent was signed in Europe, but the battle in New Orleans was still fought because they didn't know it was signed. But now, the some Americans are saying that they had won that battle.