Before I continue, I want to say that this post should by no means be taken as an attack on my fellow citizens in Southern states.

This is especially for those members that grew up in the South or perhaps have spent a lot of time there.

I have heard that when schoolkids in the South are taught about the Civil War it is taught differently than in the North, such as referring to it as 'The War of Northern Aggression'.

So I'm wondering if some can shed some light on this. Are kids taught this way about the war in former Confederate states? If so, is this common in the South? To what extent are they taught differently than in the North?

And last but not least, (if such teaching is true) what do you think about it?

Thanks

I don't remember that far back, John. lol The last time I "studied" the Civil War was my freshman year in HS and I only paid enough attention to pass the tests. I will say that my teacher had a Confederate Flag on her wall! She was instructed to remove it when they integrated the schools.

So when was that, Roseanne? I thought schools were integrated in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act.

Our HS was integrated in 1969 or 1970. It took time for them to decide what white kids would be bussed to the black schools to make room for the black kids in white schools and/or hire more teachers or move teachers around, decide which schools might have to be closed and buy busses to bring the black kids to the white schools or vice versa. They had to negotiate with the teacher's union regarding tenured teachers and buy-outs for those near retirement to combine some schools. They had to re-draw school districts.

At the time all kids went to neighborhood schools within walking distance. It wasn't like there was an all-white school a couple of blocks away from an all-black school. The neighborhoods were separated by miles and fully segregated.

They couldn't just snap their fingers and be done. It took a huge effort and organization on the part of the school board to coordinate it all.

I assume the schools were given a timeline to have it done considering all of the above. Not sure of the specifics for that part.

John, I don't think there is some universal syllabus n southern states. Not even sure within each state things are taught the same.

I'm a northerner living and bringing up a child south of the Mason Dixon line. In Maryland, there seems to be more emphasis on Civil War history and events than there was back in my home state, where the Revolution enjoyed the spotlight. In school my daughter has spent a lot of time reading civil rights era books in her classes- both in English and social studies. She read primary sources of Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth- things I never saw in high school. She spent a lot of time on MLK and JFK- this did not seem unusual to me. She read A Lesson Before Dying and is now reading Huck Finn. It seems "regional" to me that she is getting more of this than I recall getting in school. I am not far enough south for the War of Northern Aggression. I do think that there are regional differences in the way history is taught.

We read Huck Finn... in Quebec, Canada.

I was hoping for something a bit more south.


Thanks your responses, everyone. I didn't get too much information but I appreciate your comments.

On a bike trip we visited the post-war civil war residence of Jefferson Davis (http://www.beauvoir.org/) in Biloxi Mississippi. It's mostly a museum of the Confederacy, and the war is definitely seen in a different light there than up here in the cool, blue north.

Born in 1935, in New Orleans, LA, spending my school years there.

I do not ever recall hearing anyone in that area refer to the Civil War as the War of Northern Aggression.

Such local Louisiana History as we studied was more on the part of Louisiana's special heroes who assisted in the various wars resulting in the establishment of the USA. We learned about Claiborne, Galvez, Bienville, La Fayette, La Fitte, the Baroness de Pontalba, and a whole lot about slave trade and slaves.

I don't recall dwelling, or even giving more than a nod to the realities of the Civil War. It happened. The slaves were freed. Now let us tell you about the terrific heroes who, acting in the area of Louisiana, made such great contributions to the formation of our nation. This, of course, happened a while before the Civil War,(It could hardly have happened after the formation of the cofederacy, because there wouldn't have been a "union" from which to secede had the Revolutionary War not occurred.

New Orleans, on the other hand, was a great deal different from other southern cities because of it's unique atmosphere and multi cultural acceptance of diversity. There were distinct areas of the city for Germans, Irish, French, Spanish, Africans, Italians, Jewish, and, of course, Americans who came, after the Civil War, with the carpetbaggers, and the opportunists to reap the profits of the rebuilding and reconstruction of the former legal and social structures.

It was almost as though our "history" considered the Civil War a distraction from our city's need for flamboyance and whacky characters.

After my divorce, I returned to New Orleans, with my four children. I do not recall any of my four children mentioning the War of Northern Aggression, or the Civil War. This, of course, was thirty or so years after my school time in that area. I do recall them mentioning the same "historical heroes" that had been made familiar to me during my school years.

Again, I give caution, although New Orleans is about as far south as one can get (other than Florida), it is a different culture from most of the rest of the South. There are very few New Orleanians who would bother putting a Confederate flag on their bumpers or their windows. In all my life in New Orleans, as a youngster and as an oldster, I have not had one discussion with any fellow New Orleanian concerning the Civil War, other than during the Civil Rights years. At that time, the bigots mad racist remarks, and the rest of us said it was about time. But I never experienced any discussions concerning the justice of injustice of the Civil War. There was slavery, and then there was not slavery. A President named Abe Lincoln oversaw legal changes that made slavery end, and that was considered a good thing.

For what it's worth, I offer this as some "more," from further South.

jd

This was fun! I decided to look through the internet to see if I could find an answer to John's question. I didn't but there is definitely a difference in opinion between the north and the south about the causes of the Civil War. Whether that's because of what is taught in schools or not I don't know but the difference sure runs deep and emotional even today.

One site I wish I had copied was funny. It was a discussion group that seemed to be mainly populated by scholars of various stripes. One of them made the comment that it was surprising the subject was still being debated since academicians had settled the matter many years ago. The responses indicated that the matter was far from settled.

I expect there were several reasons for the war but slavery has eclipsed most of the others. Even a hundred and fifty years later it would be hard for people to grasp the stupidity of a war which killed the modern day equivalent of six million people over a tax dispute.

Born in 1953. Went to school in Sunbury, PA, a town with a KKK Chapter and no black people. We were taught that the conflict was basically federal versus state's rights issue with the primary conflict being the states' rights to own slaves. I grew up 90 minutes from Gettysburg so we toured the battleground on a field trip during 5th grade. I still remember it quite well. I remember reading "The Red Badge of Courage" in junior high which I am fairly sure I didn't fully understand then. Truthfully, it's a book I should revisit as an adult. Unfortunately, I have no remembrance of covering the Civil War in high school at all. 11th grade would have been American Lit and History and I remember Salem Witches and The Lottery, a lot of Hemingway, but not really any Civil War.

Jason was born in 1984. He went to school in a multi-cultural environment in Mays Landing, NJ. I know he read The Autobiography of Frederick Douglas and The Killer Angels in middle school. I read them both because I read his assignments then for my personal growth. I have no idea what he read or learned in high school, because he was independent academically by then.

Early in my marriage when hubby and moved to Atlanta, Ga I was asked which side of the Mason Dixon Line I was from in Missouri. I really had no idea what these people were talking about as when I was going to school and took history the Civil War wasn't something we spent much time on. The first time I ever went to school with black people was when I was in the 8th grade so that was in 1958 and that didn't have anything to do with immigration but the fact grade school black students had their own school as white students did then when we all got junior high age we all went to the junior high school for grades 8 & 9 then on to high school together. Since hubby was in the USAF we lived in several states...IL, OH, FL, GA, TX until he got out of the service and went into another field of work but I can say that living in OH I was never asked such questions but maybe living on an Air Force Base and not having civilian friends during that time has something to do with it. GA was the only state we lived in that I felt were still fighting the civil war and we lived there from 1968 - 1978. I have always felt then and still feel this way today as I have many friends still who live in Ga. these people are the most prejudiced and backwards people I have ever known....second only to MO when it comes to prejudiced. I find this very sad.

I'm sure people all over the place have read Huck Finn. Just taken together with the other parts of her curriculum it suggests a theme. I read a lot about JFK too because he was from my home state, but I don't recall the same emphasis on civil rights as in the Maryland curriculum. Maryland is known as the Free State. Harriet Tubman is from here and Frederick Douglass' family had a summer home in the community of Highland Beach outside of Annapolis. Civil rights has deep roots here. There are statues of Thurgood Marshall and Alex Haley that I walk by every day.

I've seen the expression used, but have no evidence it was taught in schools. It probably was, but maybe not officially.