What do they teach in British schools about the American Revolution.?
I am from Scotland, I did 7 years of primary education and 6 years of higher education (the usual here) before going onto College and then University. I do not recall ever being taught about The American Revolution. In fact, the only mention of American history I can remember was a little bit about their involvement in the world wars.
When I was at school back in the 1940s and 1950s here in UK, we did very little that I can remember of the American Revolution – famous names were mentioned, Geo Washington and Ben Franklin. Something about the tea tax issue and such as “no taxation without representation” etc. I have no idea how much of the American Revolution is taught in schools here in UK today, maybe a lot more. Problem with the American Revolution is that it took place a long way off and we must always remember that the past is a foreign place. By that I mean how we see things is quite different to how people back then saw things and behaved. I mean, we’d be quite astonished now to discover just how much support there was for the American Revolution right here in England, when it was estimated at the time that about 50% of the people gave it their support. Blimey! I do recall one school teacher saying something along the lines that it was too far off and we could not send enough troops or some such. I have actual
As a failed Trainee teacher of History in Secondary education I can say that in general the American Revolution/ War of Independence is not covered in the national curriculum. It may get covered at A level but no-one I taught was taking the American a-level. The American Civil war does get covered as part of the slavery debates and also in the American a-level. Unfortunately History is no longer compulsory above the age of 13/14 and is dominated by the modern histories of America post WW2 and Nazi Germany. I honestly fear for the future of history teaching at schools. I taught /trained in Wales and they at least had their own curriculum dealing with their own History, so why the scots who have a separate schooling system did not learn about Scottish history I do not know, perhaps they lived in non-Scotland. What do you teach about the fate of the loyalists btw?
I remember having to study it in the Third Form. Not much really…we studied all the Revolutions that year from the Agricultural revolution onwards and the American Revolution was also included. Don’t remember much of it, just bits and pieces like the Boston Tea Party, Gold Rush, Slave Trade etc. I vaguely remember studying the civil law and looking up sources on the red coats’ war strategies. But it was a long time ago…and i didn’t take history for O Levels or A Levels. I’m sure the people who did learned way more than what we did in the general curriculum.
We have so much history to cover, we don’t have enough time to learn about the American Revolution at school. But we don’t learn a lot on our Empire. I think some colleges and universities teach about it. I remember learning about when colonists started going to the Americas and when it was discovered at school. Theres about another 500 years history, at least, in British history than American history. And then theres other events in the world which we learn about. But I have learnt about it myself by using websites and listening to what some other people have to say. The same for the American Civil War, but one of my teachers has talked about it for about 2 lessons, and talked about it about more in later lessons. I think my knowledge on both is just basic and not really detailed.
