If you attended public (or private) school after the 1960's,

[raccoon]

did you learn about the riots in Watts, etc. that took place in the '60's at school?

[rockymountaindem]

1. Nope

Public high school, late 1990s, early 2000s.

[SteppingRazor]

2. Sure.

We covered it in history class in both junior high and high school, IIRC (I graduated H.S. in 1994)

[raccoon]

5. I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that. nt

[maxsolomon]

3. nope, but my kids did

they had howard zinn as a supplemental textbook in 11th grade.

[raccoon]

7. Sounds like a progressive school. Public or private? nt

[maxsolomon]

16. private

secretive almost.

i'd never read zinn before, and cynical as i am about american history, it sure didn't help much. but they read it & are optimistic. how about that.

[Sir Jeffrey]

4. No way...

Public school was a joke all the way through. I get sick thinking of all the stuff I didn't learn and all the lies I was told...especially now that I have a child of my own. DO I really want her sent off to get lied to and brainwashed?

[RagingInMiami]

6. I learned about the Watts riots by watching Sanford and Son

[JackintheGreen]

23. I learned it from Frank Zappa

Then I went to the library to read up on it. And yet I still maintain that, by and large, I had one of the last good PS educations in my hometown.

[Fredda Weinberg]

8. I was in one

Got a shoe in my head after MLK's death

[havocmom]

9. Had a couple of really good teachers who wanted us to know the score

One actually spent time hiding in under the seat in an outhouse in a farm workers camp during the bad days with grape growers. Those people WERE not nice and he probably would have been killed if not for his hide out. The boss-men tore EVERYTHING else in the place apart on the hunch that there were people with cameras snooping around. (There were, and he was a mess when Monday came around, but his pal the photographer got some damning stuff)

One had been OSS during WWII and as it morphed into the CIA. He taught history. He REALLY taught history. And he suggested we apply the lessons to our approach to dealing with power in America. He stopped a lecture one day, asked us to put down our pens and said if we never learned anything else from him, we should learn that the government was not our friend. Then he gave some interesting tidbits about how easy it was to be found on the wrong side of things in the eyes of power, and how they could paint and destroy people at will. He looked so sad some of us were afraid he was suicidal.

It was not long after WATTS. Both those teachers discussed it with us. But we were in a time and place where WATTS was local news we all recalled seeing on TV just a few years before.

Now? WATTS? History?

Hell, ask people who Samuel Gompers was... be prepared to be saddened.

[raccoon]

14. He sounds like a kick-butt teacher.

"asked us to put down our pens and said if we never learned anything else from him, we should learn that the government was not our friend. "

And he said that right. I think it's true of any government.

[havocmom]

25. He was a great teacher.

If he's still around he's probably reading DU. Here's to you, Big Ben :toast: Thanks for the insights and history. Thanks Mr O

[Generic Other]

10. We had riots in our own town

right after MLKing was assasinated. They didn't even talk about that. Just let us out of school early.

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. The problem with American history in our curriculum

Was that we never really had much time to get to post-WWII history. I remember spending a helluva lotta time on 1870's-1890's, and then breezing over 1945-1990 in two or three days. So, no, I don't remember learning about the Watts riots in school, but I learned a lot of contemporary history by reading a lot on my own. This is also NYC in the late '80's-early 90's, so we had our share of race issues on our own (Howard beach, Bensonhurst, Crown Heights riots, and, of course, the LA riots happened my first year in college; I roomed with a black guy that played "Burn, Hollywood, Burn" on a perpetual loop during the whole height of the LA riots, really putting the white suburbanites on our floor on edge, but making me laugh my ass off...;-)).

BURN, HOLLYWOOD, BURN LYRICS:

CHUCK D:

Burn Hollywood burn
I smell a riot goin' on
first they're guilty now they're gone
Yeah I'll check out a movie
But it'll take a Black one to move me
Get me the hell away from this TV
All this news and views are beneath me
Cause all I hear about is shots ringin' out
About gangs puttin' each other's head out
So I rather kick some slang out
All right fellas let's go hang out
Hollywood or would they not
Make us all look bad like I know they had
But some things I'll never forget yeah
So step and fetch this shit
For all the years we looked like clowns
The joke is over
Smell the smoke from all around
Burn Hollywood burn

ICE CUBE:

Ice Cube is down with the PE
Now every single bitch wanna see me
Big Daddy is smooth word to mother
Let's check out a flick that exploits the color
Roamin' thru Hollywood late at night
Red and blue lights what a common sight
Pulled to the curb gettin' played like a sucker
Don't fight the power
Just shoot the motherfucker

BIG DADDY KANE:

As I walk the streets of Hollywood Boulevard
Thinkin' how hard it was to those that starred
In the movies portrayin' the roles
Of butlers and maids slaves and hoes
Many intelligent Black men seemed to look uncivilized
When on the screen
Like a guess I figure you to play some jigaboo
On the plantation, what else can a nigger do
And Black women in this profession
As for playin' a lawyer, out of the question
For what they play Aunt Jemima is the perfect term
Even if now she got a perm
So let's make our own movies like Spike Lee
Cause the roles being offered don't strike me
There's nothing that the Black man could use to earn
Burn Hollywood burn

[LibDemAlways]

21. Your point is well taken.

Every time kids are exposed to US History in school (5th, 8th, and 11th Grade in CA), the same ground is covered - early exploration, colonization, Revolutionary War, Constitution, Early Presidents, and (if the teacher gets there) Civil War. 20th Century never even mentioned, or hurridly mentioned in the last couple of weeks of the school year.

The chronological approach robs the students of ever learning anything about more recent history - unless they have the desire to seek out the information on their own.

[bumblebee1]

12. I didn't learn about the Watts riots in school.

I heard of them. I learned a little more from the show "Quantum Leap." I lived in Long Beach during the south central riots of 1992. I was on the phone with a friend of mine after the Rodney King verdicts came down. I told him "Don't be surprised if a riot breaks out."

A friend of ours called from Port Hueneme. She wanted us to come up there so we'd be safe. I don't think she realized we'd have to go through that area to get to Port Hueneme. Her husband informed her of that. We didn't have that many problems in Long Beach.

[gratuitous]

13. There were riots in Watts?

Why wasn't I informed?

Seriously, the Watts riots and the ones in New Jersey didn't make much of a blip on my radar (elementary, middle and high school 1964-76). Significant national events that I remember impinging on my juvenile consciousness were hippies and free love, protests against the Vietnam war, the 1968 election, the moon landing, the shootings at Kent State, and the end of draft and the Vietnam war moments before I would have had to register. Hell, I don't think I was even aware of what The Doobie Brothers' band name actually meant. Small town, you know.

[raccoon]

15. I wasn't either, until a few years sgo!

"The Doobie Brothers' band name actually meant. Small town, you know. "

[soothsayer]

17. Yeah, I think they did get a mention

[karynnj]

18. My 2 older kids both did - one private school, one public

The youngest hasn't started US history in HS yet - but she's at the same private school and it will be covered. You can't understand the 1960s without Watts and the other riots any more than you could eliminate all the anti-Vietnam actions.

[BrotherBuzz]

19. It was taught as current events

Ronald Reagan launched his damn sorry political career by harnessing the fear that was stewing in the white communities in LA area after the riots.

[cain_7777]

20. I attended both public and private schools over the years...

Public schools never mentioned it, but in three seperate private schools we studied it. I am not sure whether it was because we always covered much more material in private school, or public schools wanted to avoid it.

[JohnnyRingo]

22. Most of what we learned in school is wrong...especially history class

Here's a link to "forgotten History":
http://archives.gophercentral.com/newsletter_6.html

A full day of reading about events that have been whitewashed over for the sake of governance.

[Sir Jeffrey]

26. A full day of reading to keep me from working today...

Thank you!

[Jed Dilligan]

24. Nope.

I think I found out from an old Life magazine that was lying around the house.

[bpeale]

27. Nope

I learned about watts from watching TV news. That was back in the day when they actually reported the news.

[booley]

28. Actually I did

I my high school history class.

We had pretty good teachers. I also liked my psychology class where I learned about the human behavior expairiments, where I saw seemingly sane people do insane things. I see those same techniques being used today to manipulate people by the Republicans.

[AngryOldDem]

29. No.

I graduated high school in 1978, and as I recall, history more or less stopped at WWII.

And I can assure you, my children won't hear about Watts in school either, because they're learning less of history than I did.

[supernova]

30. No, I saw them on the nightly news

I watched the news when I was a child. I couldn't help but stare at the complete breakdown of society. Incredibly sad.

But no, it wasn't taught in class. We didn't get past WWI. All the rest I had to learn on my own.

[noonwitch]

31. My history book ended with 1968 (I used the book in 1981)

The book ended with the assassinations of MLK and RFK, and the election of Richard Nixon.