Winston Churchill was black

Geck0 wrote: I know that, but I think he's hoping on some rule change, as I'm pretty sure he would love to be President. Not that I'd hope the voting US citizens would vote him (I hope). It's likely it could be Hillary Clinton though...

"some rule change" would mean amending the Constitution - as you Brits would say, "not bloody likely".

As for Hillary, she will be the first woman to run for President (in a major party, at least - don't know if some woman affiliated with a fringe party ever tried to run), but I have my doubts about her victory.

I know that, but I think he's hoping on some rule change, as I'm pretty sure he would love to be President.

Not that I'd hope the voting US citizens would vote him (I hope).

It's likely it could be Hillary Clinton though...

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: [QUOTE=NaturalScience]   I have no doubt you know much more about US History than a good majority of the high school graduates in this country. [QUOTE]   It's not me Natural Science, the only advantage to leave in a country like Perú (Well there are a lot bit not for the majorities), is that we have to learn from the rest of the world, so our education system (That is far from good except in private schools) tries to give a view of the rest of the world and most Peruvians see USA as the center of the world.   I'm sure every Latin American kid knows that Washington is the capital of USA but how many USA students know that Lima, Quito and La Paz are the capitals of Perú, Ecuador and Bolivia?   The problem of USA school system is that you are in fact the most powerful nation and the education system doesn't care about many things like hitory of the resyt of the world or even your own history.   Being a bit more humble will allow students to learn more about the rest of the world.   Iván

Interesting enough, my first year of Spanish in high school was spent on memmorizing the entire Spanish speaking world. We had to memorize the founding dates too.


Edited by king of Siam - September 06 2006 at 01:38

Since we have established that our great hero and former Prime Minister Winston Churchill was black (incidentally his mother was from the United States), and former PM  Maggie Thatcher was a woman (subject for discussion) when are the USA or USSR  going to have a black or female President?  

I KNEW he was black, i knew it

I can tell you that our high school focuses much more on 20th-21st century American History, not 18th-19th Century. We hit the big issues like The Revoutionary War, the War of 1812, The Civil War and so on, but fact such as the impeachment of Andrew Jackson are considered rather inconsequential at the high school level.

Jim Garten wrote: Dreamer wrote: There are people in my class who don't know the difference between left and right wing... Living in a country evidently ruled by different levels of middle management, it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference here, too

Well one has an elephant, one a donkey. Other than that they are interchangeable.

I don't know whether it will be of any comfort to people like Peter or the others who are appalled at the utter lack of learning of the younger generations, but I feel I have to relate what happened to me just yesterday morning, while I was travelling on a regional train from Calabria to Naples. Three girls were sitting right opposite me, and they were going to Rome to take an entry test in order to study at university. They were revising and doing sample tests... My goodness, their ignorance was absolutely appalling, and they were not teenagers anymore! They really had no clue about lots of important cultural events in Italian and European history - and this is Europe, for heaven's sake, not to mention a country that is prone to the habit of turning up its nose at other, 'newer' countries (as I often saw when living in Finland). How very, very sad...

JJLehto wrote: I do find it sad  just how little people know about history/geography.    I was able to name every US president, while one friend of mine knew like 5 (obviously Washington and Lincoln  and also George W Bush and Bill Clinton)

Public education in the United States is a failed system.*

That being said, my wife and I moved into an area of Pennsylvania that supposedly has a very good public school system.  What my son (and subsequent siblings to be named later) doesn't learn in the school we'll teach him ourselves.  I have strong views about what kids should be learning, and at what pace, particularly in mathematics and science (because I've chosen a career in these fields).  The bottom line is children could be challenged a lot more and be learning at a faster pace than the one set by current school curricula.  Parental involvement in childhood education is critical.

* Statistics in the form of test scores actually show the United States educates its children quite well compared to the rest of the world until about age 10, after which there is a marked decline such that by the time they are 18, they are significiantly behind.