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In many controversal threads the term "socialism" is used in a way which is very often totaly wrong. It is widely used as a kind of "bad" word.
Sometimes i think there is not so much knowledge about these terms/ideas. For me as an european it is partly amusing when somebody calls Germany, France a.s.o. as countries with socialist-systems.
So i am very interested what is taught about different systems / societies in the u.s. school system.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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We have very poor education in this area. Civics in general has been done away with as a stand alone course. Political science prior to college is generally not covered well either. Even in college, undergrad political science courses are generally not required. There are of course exceptions, but the amount of confusion and interchangeable use of "communism" for "socialism" and even "democracy" with "capitalism" is horrific. The red scare generation education of the 50s really did a number on us culturally, the indoctrination of anything hinting on socialism being like living in communist China or the old USSR is alive and well in most of the U.S. Indeed, it isn't uncommon to hear Democratic party politicians being called "commies" with a straight face on prime time TV news/opinion shows. Pretty incredible. (No, I'm no democrat BTW).
The only people who actually learn what socialism means are those who take political science or perhaps a sociological theory course in college, and even then they might not get the correct definition, depending on how the class is taught.
It really is ridiculous. People throw around these terms based on stuff they read on their favorite political blog (or in a severely partisan book) but they have no real clue what they are talking about half the time.
I can't imagine that everyone didn't learn the definitions at some point but certain Politicians are not normal people and they've changed the real meaning of the word socialism to mean something very different. Obama Ridicules Republicans For Calling Him a Socialist
Socialism is certainly taught in any Government class. In our High School Government is a required class for graduation.
I disagree somewhat.
Government classes are not in every school, and even those that have them do not cover the material all the same way. I think most of the time, Socialism gets a one sentence definition students are supposed to memorize with little further discussion. And the definition often used is rather vague, which is why it is easy for people to get confused about what socialism actually is later on.
Because curriculum is a local perogative in the U.S. what kids get taught in high school regarding politics, civics, current affairs, and government, can vary wildly from state to state. And it can also vary wildly teacher by teacher, even within the same school district. And since most Americans won't finish college, where they might get a better understanding of political systems, what we end up with is a populace that has a relatively unsophisticated about these things and lives in ideological and political bubbles, listening and reading only what their friends and neighbors do. OF course there are exceptions, but this is the general pattern.
Good points, Tinawina and citylove. I agree that what I and my kids were taught (different states and many years apart) may not be what is or has been taught in every city. It just seems pretty darn basic to me.
There was a government class offered at my high school, but it was an elective. Forms of government were touched on in Social Studies classes (required), but just that, touched on. Nothing in-depth.
Civics was also an elective.
These things were very undertaught at the high school level in my teen years (1990s, early end). I was a college student before I started to become well-informed.
When I was a kid, "socialism" was a dirty word, because for part of my childhood, there was still a USSR, and that was the context in which most people knew the word, and Cold War was still in the lexicon. Once, I learned what socialism actually WAS, I realized it WASN'T something I was opposed to, but the context growing up a Reagan-era little kid, if you heard the word socialism at all, it wasn't in a positive light, it was in a "commie" light. This was rural midwest U.S., Reagan's stomping grounds (he grew up in a neighboring community and was a hero to most).
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