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Coppatilism wrote:

Controversial Opinion of the Day!

What topics do you think should be discussed in schools that are currently not?

1.) History in general needs more depth and less...not necessarily american bias, but american blinders. we tend to view things through a very US centric, and earlier history a christian european centric way to the detriment or even exclusion of vital aspects of historical context. a few examples of this:

-A.
The Cold War. often we use the McCarthyist Us vs the commies rhetoric to handwave a lot of the context of the cold war so it can be taught to us as "The Cold War" rather than as, the korea-vietnam-afghanistan-iraq-kosovo-etc fustercluck. this lets us glaze over our losses and our faults without discussing the lessons learned from them or the geo-socio-econo-political reasonings for them. dooming us to repeat them
-B. WWI-WWII.
many of the issues surrounding both wars need fuller detail/context. most americans have no idea what the russo-japanese war was, and probly don't even realise how much of the pacific theater was argued real estate between germany russia and japan.
according to almost every american outside of nerds with teaching collegiate degrees, WWII started when the US decided to break up the european bickering contest, and ended when we singlehandedly crushed hitler and bombed japan. the reality of mussolini being mostly incompetent, Stalin being an ally, Stalin's Forces ACTUALLY crushing the reich at battles like kursk and stalingrad, etc, is barely discussed
-C. Americana/Revolutionary War-Civil War-Post Civil war Era.
most americans still think the only reason we revolted was taxation without representation, but representation for what? ultimately if you have what you want, you don't need that representation, and we were fine up until then, so what changed? this never occurs to the american mind, and we know this and abuse it. you'll notice the similarity to the pro-slavery "States rights" argument. states' rights... to do WHAT? the american mind doesn't follow that thought to conclusion, and our schooling doesn't encourage it either, choosing largely to ignore facts about how the brits were already discussing the slavery issue(and outlawed slavery a few years after we broke free), and how the colonies were bound by a british treaty with the natives so as they COULDN'T move west, which was getting in the way of all that Manifest Destiny. the civil war and post civil war eras could do with more focus on the roles different elements of society played in the mechanisms at work, the fact that the slavery argument was there at the founding of the country and was kicked down the road to fester, the fact that many branches of christianity in the states were actively using faith to try and further the slavery argument claiming that Black people were black because that was the Mark of Cain(a belief some held all the way into the 1980s) and therefore they were meant to be slaves, the backlash in the post war era with Groups like Daughters of the Confederacy who would basically sow the seeds for the KKK and the american fascist movement, or incidents like the destruction and slaughter of Black Wall Street, more attention to redlining, the suburb movement, and various elements of segregationist social policies and effects, all this could do with better context and half of these didn't even have a Footnote in my history textbooks.

2.)Civics and Media Literacy.
Civics class back in the day was Just anti-communist pro-capitalist agitprop for the most part, and as a result gave birth to an entire generation of people who KNOW they have RIGHTS....but have no clue WHAT they ARE, what their LIMITATIONS are, or by what METHODS/MECHANISMS those rights are ENSHRINED/UPHELD. the typical " 'Murica" crowd. we need to re structure and bring back civics class the way it should have been in the first place, a class that teaches the mechanisms by which your government and economy RUNS, NOT the propaganda your government SELLS, with an emphasis on Media Literacy and Propaganda analysis/recognition. most americans can't see propaganda unless it has a Muscovite accent, which leaves us BLATANTLY exposed to our own brand.

3.)Home Economics, Self-Reliance and Mutual Aid.
i don't know if it's still this way in russia, Taurifederation might be able to clarify, but there was a period where highschools would teach kids field operations/maintenance for an AK rifle. this apparently had to do with both a law stating every home needed to have one and the whole mandatory minimum military service so everyone is a standing defender in case of invasion/war thing the soviets were fond of.
while i don't think this is a great nor a necessary idea for the US, it illustrates a point.
in the US children are scared away from things rather than taught about them.
don't teach them about the physics or properties of fire so they know how to handle it, just yell "Don't play with Matches!" at them.
i was told "never play with knives" at least 1 million times before anyone ever said "You should always cut away from yourself, never cut downward toward your legs(triangle of death), and a sharp knife is safer than a dull knife". now i'm a fire eater and a juggler, my hobbies are playing with fire and catching dropped/falling knives. i'm every mother's "what not to do" list, but i can do these things because i understand them.

that's what i'm talking about here. the knife, and fire, are literally the foundational tools of civilization that tribal cultures teach their kids about before their age reaches double digits, and we chase our children away from. it's no wonder my generation is full of people who are lost without a *Bic disposable lighter and think "camping" is Parking the RV at the designated lot before cooking dinner in the on board microwave. we need to teach children about basic "primitive" problem solving and logic. basic survival, bushcraft, how to identify edible/medicinal/poisonous plants, emergency first aid, appropriate actions to take in the event of natural disaster, etc.
when the pandemic lockdowns first started everyone was panic buying bottled water and toilet paper. i buy the large packs of paper rolls and have only 2 people in house so i had more than enough, and if the water and power went out, i have a fire pit and ample wood for heat and cooking, and i can drain like 50 gallons of drinkable water out of my house's water heater in an emergency.

in an age where many in society are held technologically or infrastructurally above and distant from "Reality", these types of skills are all the more vital when that infrastructure fails them and isn't there.
once one can provide for themselves confidently, they can more readily aid/provide for others. if you aren't worried about your water situation, instead of buying pallets of bottled water you can save that money to put it to better use for yourself, or you could distribute that bottled water to those less fortunate or able since it's not anything YOU need, it's excess.

my point is, combine home economics with the "Boy Scouts", teach our kids how to survive an emergency, how to build a house from mud and sticks with only a knife, how to balance the household budget, and how to properly cook Salmon or bake Cookies, and they'll be set for any world they find themselves in, power, no power, etc.
are you a rightwinger waiting for the second civil war to start? your kids will have the skills to hide from commies in the woods and fight back.
lefty afraid that the rightwing guy i was just talking to is gonna take over the country with his nazi buddies? same deal your kids will be able to survive the dark times.
Putin pushes the red button, drops Tsar Bomba, and everyone else's Dead Hand Nuclear Response Systems Go ape-wild? whichever of your children crawls out of the irradiated rubble and survives the coming of the neo-stone age, WILL BE FINE. and so will anyone with them that's smart enough to take their advice.
the Human Tribe will continue.