Do schools teach history of Asia in the US? (college, high school, geography)

[Bettafish]

I am just curious.
In China junior high school requires two semesters' Chinese history and one semester's history of the world. In senior high chool, there is one Chinese history course and one world history.
Most of the "world history" classes cover Europe, especially Greece, Rome, Britain, France, Germany and Russia. For US history, we learned about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and of course black savery. Also
wwii etc.
For the rest of the world, not much. Just one chapter about ancient Egypt, one or two chapters about ancient and recent Japan. Some random things about India, Turky, Latin America and so on. Many teachers skipped them.

I think China is a special case because we have too much to learn about ourselves. I wonder how other countries teach history.

[sll3454]

When I was in junior high and high school (70s), we had a semester of world geography in 9th grade and a full year of world history in 10th. The history was organized more by continent than by time. In seventh grade we studied ancient civilizations for at least part of the year.

It differs by state, but now in some states world history is taught in 6th-7th grade, then again some time in high school (I hope). It used to be Western Hemisphere in 6th, Eastern Hemisphere in 7th, but now it is divided by time periods instead.

From my conversations with adults, I would say it is not taught enough, or well enough.

[Mattie]

China was a large part of the World Cultures class I took in high school, way back in the 70's. In fact, the only lessons I remember today were the chapters on Mao Tse-tung.

[North Beach Person]

The AP World History course was recentered a couple years ago to shift emphasis away from Europe to Asia, Africa and pre-Columbian Americas. So a qualified yes would be your answer.

Regular World History is more of a crap shoot.

[Bettafish]

It's lucky to be a student in the US though.
I China we are required to memorize every single dynasty since 4000 years ago, and all the major events from the construction of the Great Wall to the Rape of Nanjing. Those Huns, Turks, and Mongols only make things more complicated.

[Momma_bear]

My son took AP Human Geography which covered societies all over the world including Asia. He also took AP World History which included substantial information about Asia. The Social Studies curriculum at their high school is as follows:

9th grade-Human Geography
10th grade-World History
11th grade-US History
12th grade-Economics/US Government

All classes are offered as college prep, honors or AP.

[tgbwc]

I'm really only familiar with our elementary curriculum. Some is included in third and fifth grades. I just copied portions of the text from the district's social studies curriculum overview page:

Third grade:
Students learn about the cultures of the ancient civilizations of Egypt, China, Greece, and Rome.

Fifth grade:
Teachers will teach two of the following four ancient civilizations:

The Fertile Crescent (Standard 3)
India (Standard 4)
China (Standard 5)
Pre-Columbian Civilizations*(Standard 6)

Teachers will teach one of the following classical civilizations:

Greece (Standard 7)
Rome*(Standard 8)

Teachers will teach one of the following post-classical era civilization:

East Africa*(Standard 9)
Southwest Asia (the Middle East) (Standard 10)

[charolastra00]

Non-Western history was covered in 9th grade human geography and 10th grade world history - but not enough. Unfortunately, it's a big world out there and there is not enough class time to cover it all. While Chinese language was not offered while I was in high school, my former high school now includes a Chinese history class taught in Chinese.

I was able to take Spanish history and Latin American history by taking upper level Spanish classes in high school, but I don't remember getting more than a cursory look at Latin America (aside from Mexico and Cuba) through the rest of my education.

[jtab4994]

I graduated high school in 1978. In 6th grade we learned about the "4 cradles of civilization", 3 of which were in Asia (Indus Valley, Tigris/Euphrates, and the Hwang Ho/Yangtze (Yellow) River Valley). Today's purveyors of textbooks may list more than 4 cradles of civilization.

I didn't take any specific Asian history classes in high school, but it's taught as part of world history. I have an interest in history and world policitics so at this point in my life it's hard to say whether I learned this or that about Asian history in school or because of extracurricular interest.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by Bettafish

It's lucky to be a student in the US though.
I China we are required to memorize every single dynasty since 4000 years ago, and all the major events from the construction of the Great Wall to the Rape of Nanjing. Those Huns, Turks, and Mongols only make things more complicated.

Most US students will know the great wall exists, but not who built it or when. Few will know what a dynasty is. Almost none will know anyhting about one dynasty compared to another. None will likely know what the rape of Nanjing is (I do not). Most are aware there was extreme ause of Chinese civilians by the Japanese during WWII, but that is about it. Most are taught the chinese inveted spagetti and gun powder. The communist takeover got a lot of attention in my day, but they do nto seem to teach much about it anymore.

Yes some Chinese history is taught in our schools, but usually only a chapter and it is forgotten immediately after the test.

Now I am off to look up the rape of Nanjing - I am guessing it is probably the city the Japanese solders sacked during WWII.

Wow. That is horrific. I knew something horrible and evil happened but no real details. What is it that turns people evil so easily?