TOTALLY correct on History in schools. Then, when you have to relate stuff together in an AP exam, it's ten times harder because stuff like this is never explained in context, only in facts. It's a good thing that I had an interest in history and actually cared.
Also, here's some comments on some other points brought up that I experienced in high school history class:
- I actually watched The Patriot in high school in history class, Frag. No shit. In fact, we watched it in middle school as well (with a parent note). The only part that was routinely skipped was the "burn the church" part, because, of course, we can't show a church burning in conservative America. By the way, there's definitely separation between church and state in Laurel County (lolz).
- Eel, we did, for the most part, watch History Channel documentaries (the cool ones with reenactments) whenever a history class showed a film in class. Only very rarely was it something older than the nineties.
- If you thought the Patriot was a ridiculous showing for the Revolutionary War, the same teacher taught the Wild West period by showing Shane. No joke.