What history do our future generations need to know?

Choose knowledge for grade school, high school, and/or college.

Why do you believe what you have chosen is important?

Most obvious would seem to be Alexander the Great. The important lesson is that when unified towards a common goal men can conquer the known world. However, when forward motion towards a goal stops infighting and politics will quickly destroy all gains. This lesson has been repeated throughout history.

HS level.

Federalist and anti-Federalist Papers.

Because if you don't understand the form of government we are supposed to have, we are doomed.

No specific history, but what should be taught are historical events in how they relate to concepts, and how those concepts tend to rhyme throughout history.  Basically, how human nature shapes the world we live in, for better/worse.  If a people can recognize what they're doing is damaging things, they can act to change it before it gets out of hand.

1.  Lincoln's willful violation of the US  Constitution and relentless individual goal to maintain federal power over states, resulting in the War of Northern Aggression and half a million dead Americans.

2.  Nelson Mandela, the terrorist.

3.  How UN sanctions and actions set southern Africa back 100 years, bringing food shortages, high crime, and put terrorists in charge.

4.  Pearl Harbor wasn't a "great big surprise" we knew war was coming;  furthermore how Teddy violated the constitution, screwed our ally Korea, and handed Asia to Japan.

5.  What happens when the public is disarmed:  Magna Carta trounced;  German Jews killed by millions,  Stalin's purge

6.  Collapse:  how all great civilizations die when politicians stratify society, money, and power while the lesser caste strives to survive and migrates to the cities;  this then becomes a race condition to collapse, civil war or resource failure, which will come first?

Agenda free history

How, sir, do you define agenda??

Says the guy with a German SN, containing an avatar with a babnana wearing a sombrero.  

After studying history I came to the conclusion that it was nearly all BS. It seems mankind can not record history without spin and agendas being written into it.
I think Military history is the most important, makes you think how, why, what the heck for yourself and connects with everything else.

The kind of history that makes everybody feel good about themselves.

History is all about collective therapy, not downer facts.

Simple answer here....

No matter what era is being taught the TRUTH should prevail and be taught each and every time.....

Who gets to define "TRUTH"?

Interesting you say that.  A commonly held axiom is that all of history is written by the victors, but eventually those victors die and then people are free(er) to remember the way things actually happened.  It seems that the truth will come out.  Reading between the lines is paramount, and the truth can seemingly be derived even when there is a one sided recording of an event.

I am reminded of a recording of a battle by Pharaoh Ramses II against the Hittites (The Battle of Kadesh).  Ramses account stated that his men cowered away and that he alone held the tide of battle implying that he won the day.  Of crouse we now know that the battle was a draw at best.  Upon further investigation, after this point, it appears that Egypt lost territory implying that they in fact lost the battle...  

My point is that history may be a little murky at times, but the truth is out there and will always come out even if it is many years after the fact.

They should be taught that what eventually became the United States began with the Jamestown, Virginia colony, not the Plymouth, Massachusetts colony. Jamestown had already been here for thirteen years before the stupid Puritan "pilgrims" ever set foot in North America (whereupon they immediately began starving to death and accusing each other of witchcraft).

Unlike the so-called "pilgrims," the Jamestown colonists were normal, decent, psychologically balanced - and by all accounts good looking - Anglicans who were always in good standing with the crown. Jamestown was never intended as a refuge for unpopular, extremist nubjobs, rather, it was from day one a commercial venture. Considering that the great state of Virginia is still making money to this day, I'd say they were dang successful. Giving credit where credit is due, Massachusetts is still full of extremist nutjobs, so I guess the "pilgrims" succeeded in their own way, too.

"On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company explorers landed on Jamestown Island to establish the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River, 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. By one account, they landed there because the deep water channel let their ships ride close to shore; close enough to moor them to the trees. Recent discovery of the exact location of the first settlement and its fort indicates that the actual settlement site was in a more secure place, away from the channel, where Spanish ships could not fire point blank into the fort. Almost immediately after landing, the colonists were under attack from what amounted to the on-again off-again enemy, the Algonquian natives. As a result, in a little over a month's time, the newcomers managed to "beare and plant palisadoes" enough to build a wooden fort. Three contemporary accounts and a sketch of the fort agree that its wooden palisaded walls formed a triangle around a storehouse, church, and a number of houses.

While disease, famine, and continuing attacks of neighboring Algonquians took a tremendous toll on the population, there were times when the Powhatan Indian trade revived the colony with food in exchange for glass beads, copper, and iron implements. It appears that eventual structured leadership of Captain John Smith kept the colony from dissolving. The "Starving Time" winter followed Smith's departure in 1609 during which only 60 of the original 214 settlers at Jamestown survived. That June, the survivors decided to bury cannon and armor and abandon the town. It was only the arrival of the new governor, Lord De La Ware, and his supply ships that brought the colonists back to the fort and the colony back on its feet. Although the suffering did not totally end at Jamestown for decades, some years of peace and prosperity followed the wedding of Pocahontas, the favored daughter of the Algonquian chief Powhatan, to tobacco entrepreneur John Rolfe."

http://www.apva.org/history/

you people. the only thing they should teach is THE TRUTH. now, wasn't that simple?

One of my descendants was one of the original settlers at Jamestown.  That, unfortunately, was the high point...he (my great-whatever grandfather) had kids who left and went to the NC/Va border, bought a lot of swampland, and became poor farmers.

We need people like creating history lesson plans/movies..I mean it..You had me at Number one Fucking nailed it with post 2.

it would be great to teach them to read a f'ing map

greece
the orgin of islam, christanity, and judiam, also Buddhism, Confucianism,
the fall / split of rome include Catholicism

the plague - this is so huge its bassically the start of the middle class
the reformation
colonialism, imperialism, exploration
capitalism, wealth of nations,

communism -failure of
ww1 ww2

cold war
creation of the EU

you need to lay off the glen beck  please explain how teddy screwed Korea, oh and how korea was an ally in 1900 ? and if you say he encouraged jap manifest destiny you owe me some pushups cause you're wrong as hell. your agenda is more politically biased than three queer ivy league trained special ed teachers

history is to educate on the past not indoctrinate just cause they do it does not make it right.

Everything...since they learn nothing now. I'm not exaggerating. I taught university level political science and a a few years ago I had the entire honours class of our local high school take my entry level class. They were smart kids but knew absolutely nothing about history. They had had basically 2 paragraphs on WWII during their entire high school career. I went to high school in the 70s and had extensive history classes. I was absolutely floored.I would think at a minimum:

1. WW1, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc. Wars are defining pivot points in history for good or bad...I worry the sacrifice and sense of urgency of say WWII is totally lost on the mall generation..

2. History of the founding of this country. Why our system of government is what it is. Linear history of the Presidents...

3. History of International relations....

Its not rocket science....but its not taught..

So, military history, and what used to be called Civics classes....

What school level do you want to define?

Elementary: American history, keep it simple, but interesting. Trying to teach them too much here will just bore them and not want to make them study on their own. Maybe throw in some ancient history, you know, Egyptians, Dinosaurs, whatever. Make it fun.

High School: American History. Go over all the presidents, what their big accomplishments in office were, political or social happenings of their day. Go over the major wars, specifically why they were fought, also the history of US government and the Constitution. Graduates would be able to give a summary of the first ten amendments, and what the three branches of the federal government do. Foreign history optional.

College: Let them decide on their own. However each student would be required to take an in depth course of one period of US History, and one in depth course of world history. History majors must take one course in civilization on each continent, in depth. Give a good understanding of the big picture.

High School and College courses would have a heavy emphasis on taking in facts, and analyzing cause and effects.

Of course the problem here is that if you wanted to be a truly knowledgable historian, it would take all of your life to learn just a little bit of it. There's just too much!

the winners of a conflict get to write the history, nuff said.

On US history, the birth of the nation up through the war between the states is the most important. Current events back to the civil rights movement is second most important. 1865-1960 should be covered but in a broader sense, with emphasis on WW2 and Soviet-American relations during the Cold War.

I disagree.  Granted it is always disgusting when we see modern schools revise history purely to suit a political agenda (legitimate revision is fine of course and should be encouraged), to teach agenda free history would be a total waste.  Better to not teach history at all and free up time for other subjects.  You study history to understand the whys of things, so future generations don't make similar mistakes and  replicate past successes.

To do that, you have to explain the agendas behind the history, and relate that to modern events or future scenarios to be effective.  And that means at some point you have to relate that to modern agendas.

IMO, I'm less concerned with what gets taught than how it gets taught.  

Most history classes obsess with the event itself and of course the date because it is easy to test.  But which is the more important, relevant lesson...the date that Julius Caesar was killed, or why he was killed?  Which is more important...the date that Franz Ferdinand was assassinated or the conditions leading up to and after his assassination that precipitated WWI?

The way most pre-college history is taught generates disinterest in history.  You take kids and cram them full of names, places, dates and events without meaning...of course they will find history boring, and they won't retain any of it.

History is so expansive you could never make a comprehensive go of it K-12.  Instead of trying to cover everything at a really high level so as not to be useful, get kids hooked on history, go in depth to fewer things, and develop inquisitive minds that are apt to rely on history as a source for modern problem solving...do that and kids will pursue more history in college and continue to study history in their free time throughout life.

So, basically teaching it as overarching themes??

As applicable to the immediate needs I agree with Abom's first item as having a tremendous importance, "Lincoln's willful violation of the US Constitution and relentless individual goal to maintain federal power over states, resulting in the War of Northern Aggression and half a million dead Americans."

I believe this is critically important as studying these particulars laid bare how much of my own education was political propaganda that was taught to sustain a social order that is the antithesis of that intended by our forefathers.

Just the true real facts of all the shit as it happened.

Who gets to determine truth?

American history.  At least let the kids know their heritage and appreciate the challenges of the past.  Ancient history next (Greek, Roman, some Chinese) so as to give them a broader perspective of the world.  Economic history including the debasement of money (so they know the scams of the pat that adversely impact us today).  They should learn about the tulip bubble, the Louisiana gold boom bubble, various depressions disastrous policies of the '90s under Bubba leading up to TARP.

The most important thing to teach about history isn't even really the facts themselves, but rather how events come to be. That politicians and officials don't appear out of thin air and then disappear after they leave office, they always have a history and origins and relationships that get them where they are. And that there are power blocs that compete with each other for the reigns of society, which in recent centuries is centered in the government. In the past, it might have been the church, or controlling a resource, or a piece of terrain (Afghanistan and the Khyber Pass for example), but the point is that to understand why something happened, you have to understand how these power blocs interacted. Someone always wins, its just a matter of finding out who and how they succeeded.

So, teaching thematic elements, then?

I would love to teach an American history class in HS.
I would tell them almost everything they know is a lie.
I would start with telling them George Washington wasn't the first President.
Watch their heads explode.
It would be glorious.

Who Hitler really worked for, the few banking families , and money management.

The truth is what it is/be.

The history of the Winners in history.  How they achieved top status and what did they do to make them fall.

No mention of Thucydides...D- for you all.  There is a reason he is considered the first historian.   The Peloponnesian War is still better written, more astute and contains better analysis than 99% of the history books today.  And reading it, in addition to the valuable insights on strategy, also demonstrates, with amazing clarity, that human nature has changed little, if at all, in the last 2400 years.

True, but he was the first under the newly adopted Constitution as opposed to the Congressional president during the American Revolution or any president under the Articles of Confederation.

Agree- the problem is many people think the Revolutionary War ended and George was elected president the next day or within a few months. They totally miss gaps in history or how our country came to be where it is now.