where you taught about this in school?

[LoZz]

i went to school in a very rural area, the kind of area where the daily mail sells well and the pubs close at 12

so as you can imagen its not the kind of area where people are ashamed to be british.

but when i was at school we didnt learn anything about some of the more "proud" mouments of our history, and we learn nothing about the empire, which even if you think its a good or bad thing is so important it SHOULD be taught.

the only area's of british history we did was in middle school (3 teir system - years 5-8) and we did from about 1066 till the tudor's/stuart's and we finished i think with the last english civil war and the be-heading of charles. but we didnt learn any more after that apart from WW2 their is a huge, 400-500 year gap of history that me and my peers where never taught.

now the only battle we looked at in school was hastings, we didnt do agincourt, we didnt do trafalgar and we didnt do waterloo, and i could not understand why we didnt, ok, maybe it can argued that agincourt was us on the offensive, but trafalgar and waterloo where both done in defence, where both done to stop britain being invaded and trafalgar inparticular was a great victory, yet we where taught nothing of this at school,

it almost seems that our current government is ashamed of these victories, i hope we all remember the trafalgar 300th aniversry, they did a little mock up of the acutal battle, but they called it "red fleet and "blue fleet" because they didnt want to upset anyone? "sorry france and spain for not letting you invade us?"

so i am curious, was it just my school or did anyone else learn about this? and why do you think we where not taught about it? and do you think school children should be taught about these battles and more history from our past?

[the_mango55]

I am from the US, and I learned about Agincourt and Waterloo in school.

[Hound_Of_Culann]

We were taught Waterloo, but only because it was fought on Belgian soil and from Napoleon's view rather than Britain's. We were taught great medieval victories of our own nation, though.

[Soulghast]

I'm from outside the UK, I have been never taught these, but I found out myself.

[Markas]

The only thing I recall from GCSE history was motte and bailey Castles, the Russian revolution and the causes of World War one. I had to find out about the others you mention myself.

[Rhah]

I went to school just outside of London, not a particularly wealthy or poor area. Suburban hell would be an appropriate description.

Anyway, I was taught all of these, although admittidly not in much depth. Though this was in the mid 90's so I have no idea what the curriculum is like now.

I think these sort of things should be taught in school, because they are important to the history of the development of the British Empire. But, on the other hand, they should not be given any more importance than teaching about some of the more negative effects of Empire. Basically, it should be balanced.

[Spart]

They don't teach that in Finland that much.. Actually, they just might mention about battles, but that's it. I mean all the battles in history, we don't usually speak about those.

[wilpuri]

All except Agincourt have featured in my school, although I suspect it has something to do with the AICE (Cambridge) curriculum.

[_TheChevalier_]

Here in Chile, we even don't speak or mention ANY battles, even the chilean ones, so all that I know about some battles here and there is thanks to tv progammes, and my own search

[carl-the-conqueror]

i must live near you, we learned about WWII, a bit of WWI 1066, and nothing from then untill the tudors, big waste of time history was. i think for a mmonth or two we did victorians, but it was all about the mines.

[Mathias]

We didnt learn about anything about medieval times. The oldest history we learned was the american and french revolution. Then Napoleonic wars (so we learned about waterloo obviously) and then the two world wars.

[the Black Prince]

we studied a great deal of history over the years
Romans Saxons and Vikings (Yr 3)
Tudors and Stuarts(Yr 4)
Ancient Egypt (Yr 5)
Ancient Greece (Yr 6)
Medieval History (Yr 7) (Norman Conquest to Bosworth Field)
Plains Indians (Yr 8)
WWI and the Holocaust (Yr 9)
after yr 9, History became optional, but both GCSE and A-Level History looked at the inter war years, the Great Depression, the Cold War, and the Holocaust. I chose not to bore myself with it.

Napoleonic Era is something i've never studied at school, and the look at Medieval History in Yr 7 (age 11-12) mentions Edward III only as far as including him on a timeline, and the Hundred Years War not at all. The only battles we really looked at were Hastings (Harold II vs William, Duke of Normandy) and Bosworth Field (Richard III vs Henry, Earl of Pembroke)

We did look at the Spanish Armada in Yr 4... but given that Yr 7 is age 11, you work out how young we were and how detailed the lessons were likely to have been....

British Empire, not a mention, beyond that Imperial troops fought in the world wars for us, Hundred Years War, might as well never have happened.

[General Dissaray]

I live in America and I learned a little about these things mostly that they hapend though. We focused more on what hapened to get us where we are in this country with regard to Europe, things like the Refromations of England and the French revolution. We also touched on Clasical histroy some.

I was thinking about your situation over there and I think I have come to a conclusion, granted it is probly not right but it is an idea any way. British history is a long one, a thousand years give or take. As you surely know a lot can hapen in that amount of time. If the schools were to cover every thing that hapend in all of that time with any detail there might not be much time for any thing elce, math and scince and all that. I know that is why we coverd what we did at the schools I went to. Granted there is a little less history to cover for America but I have taken classes that coverd just the Reviloution that took 3-4 months and they still didn't touch on all of it.

[Last Roman]

I learned about Agincourt and Waterloo in high school (10th grade I think)

And I'm outside the UK.

[Kretchfoop]

Identical to Last Roman. Agincourt and Waterloo in 10th grade of high school. Outside of the UK, state of Minnesota if you want specifics.

EDIT: Although to be fair I never learned much of Agincourt in school. Pretty much we were taught the bare bones basics of the Hundred Years' War. England was winning at first with important victories at blah, blah, and blah. Later, Joan of Arc came and the French won. The End.

[Last Roman]

Identical to Last Roman. Agincourt and Waterloo in 10th grade of high school. Outside of the UK, state of Minnesota if you want specifics.

where abouts?

[Kretchfoop]

where abouts?

Champlin (northern suburb if you're not from the Cities) but I've been living and going to college in North Dakota for about four years now. Though my family still lives there of course.

[Last Roman]

Champlin (northern suburb if you're not from the Cities) but I've been living and going to college in North Dakota for about four years now. Though my family still lives there of course.

ok, I know where that is. I'm from just west of the cities (wayzata, orono, minnetonka area)

anyhoo, it was the same for me. pretty much bare bones on the 100 years war. Though my teacher went pretty in depth about the Napoleonic wars.

[hsimoorb]

Middle school teaches you things? British schools are good! Middle school, and even high-school classes here in the states rarely cover any American revolution battles outside of Lexington...in my 3rd year of high school I took Advanced Placement US history and they didn't even cover Washinton's crossing of the delaware, and they just skimmed over Yorktown. The only thing we were expected to know about that is we won that battle...I hate US schools

[Kretchfoop]

Middle school teaches you things? British schools are good! Middle school, and even high-school classes here in the states rarely cover any American revolution battles outside of Lexington...in my 3rd year of high school I took Advanced Placement US history and they didn't even cover Washinton's crossing of the delaware, and they just skimmed over Yorktown. The only thing we were expected to know about that is we won that battle...I hate US schools

Strange, I was taught about every major battle in the Revolution, multiple times throughout public school. Not in very much detail mind you, but taught about them anyways. Maybe you're school district(s) was an exception or maybe mine was.

ok, I know where that is. I'm from just west of the cities (wayzata, orono, minnetonka area)

anyhoo, it was the same for me. pretty much bare bones on the 100 years war. Though my teacher went pretty in depth about the Napoleonic wars.

Ah cool, small world isn't it. We also went into some detail about the Napoleonic Wars but most of it was on the non-military aspects of it. The rise of nationalism in Europe along with the French Revolution and all that jazz.