How is history taught in your schools? Growing up in the US, we only have a few hundred years of history and are taught a few main points in the history, but Europeans have thousands of years of their own to learn.

19 comments

1. We study history every year since 3rd grade. In primary school you do from Big Bang to the Romans (Involving dinosaurs, Egyptians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Greek history, Phoenicians.)
   Then you start again in middle school (3 years) from sumerians until 2nd world war in a bit more detail.
   Then in high school you do 5 years of history from Ancient Greece to the 2008 crisis in MUCH more detail.
   Major topics involve Italian history but great amount of world history as well.
   Hope it was useful

   Edited to correct grammar and add info

2. I believe the idea here is that students of history study a few topics in depth and so develop the skills needed to study history on their own, rather than trying to learn all of human history. For example, if you’re studying history at age 15/16 then you will study three topics in depth: one Scottish, one British and one piece of world history. The choices for the latter are: the Crusades, the American Revolution, the US Civil War, Nazi Germany, the Russian Revolution, Fascist Italy, the US civil rights movement, the inter-war years 1918 to 1939, World War 2 or the Cold War. By studying one of these topics you (ideally) gain the skills needed to study any of the other in future, or any other period of history.

3. I can only speak for Portugal, but we just go chronologically from pre-history until the contemporary age. The focus is always on the relevant national context, but inevitably touches on major foreign events and on broader (usually european) contexts. It also covers major art movements in their historical context, political governance organisation, and historical economy and trade notions (in the context of the formation of the EU).

4. From what I remember from my time in school, we definitely started from the very beginning of time and went all the way to recent history, and talked about both world history and local history. Granted I took some extra history courses but those were focused on pretty niche things. However, I can’t for the life of me remember any specific topics that we would have discussed outside of Finnish history. I’m sure the courses have been curated to only hit the main points but I’ve no idea what was left out since I can’t remember anything specific, haha. There was likely a huge focus on European history, though, although the rest of the world was discussed, too, to some extent.

5. We start with the Stone Age and then work our way forward. Our biggest focus is for sure on the Nazis though. That’s the topic we spend the most time on.

   The rough plan was:

   – Grade 6: Stone Age, Ancient Greece and Rome

   – Grade 7: Middle Ages

   – Grade 8: Modern Era until WW1

   – Grade 9: Weimar Republic, Nazis, WW2

   – Grade 10: Post-war Germanys until a bit after the Reunification

   In grade 11 and 12 we mostly look at some previous topic a bit more in depth and at a higher academic level

   – Grade 11: Societal differences in the Middle Ages, Weimar Republic and Nazis, Post-war period

   – Grade 12: Formation of the European identity, History of the Middle East and the US

6. We are taught national history – First, Second and Third Bulgarian Tsardom (681-1946), Contemporary history (1946-now); and world history – Antiquity (Rome, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, the far East), Middle Ages, Renaissance, WWI, WWII, American History, too. They don’t teach Pre-Columbian history, history of Africa and the Middle East

7. When I was in primary school, we worked roughly “chronologically,” starting with pre-history in the smaller grades (Ertebølle culture, bronze- and iron-age,) the medieval period (Viking-age and generally the period until the reformation) in the middle grades, and then the modern era (from the reformation, roughly, and onwards) in the highest grades.

   In was primarily taught using textbooks and media, and generally everything was very superficial, even when we delved into specifics.

   Since then, having become a trained historian—degree from Aarhus University—I find the way which the school system, both primary and secondary education, teaches history, to be deeply flawed, and it inflicts a terrible way of thinking about history on most Danes, often reducing it to matters of purely being interested in certain events or persons. There is a lack of understanding of the field of history, what history is, and instead, it is a mundane list of events, dates and names, distorting the way we think about history, covering up relational and processual nature of history, not to mention, it is very much an outdated “Great Men”(exchange men for “events” and “women,” if you want) way of presenting history, almost mythologising it, rather than using it to understand our contemporary.

8. I can only speak for Romania here, we are taught history from the 4th grade (last grade of primary school) till 12th grade (last grade of highschool). What we are taught includes national and also universal history, with a focus on European. We go from the pre-recorded times till recent history, with the downfall of the Communist bloc.

9. [Here is the Google-translated website](https://www-skolverket-se.translate.goog/undervisning/grundskolan/laroplan-och-kursplaner-for-grundskolan/laroplan-lgr22-for-grundskolan-samt-for-forskoleklassen-och-fritidshemmet?url=-996270488/compulsorycw/jsp/subject.htm?subjectCode%3DGRGRHIS01%26tos%3Dgr&sv.url=12.5dfee44715d35a5cdfa219f&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp) of Skolverket (the National Agency for Education of Sweden) in regards to history

   In classes 1-3 the subject can be summarized as to have a focus on 4 different themes; how we live together, how we live in the local area, how we live in the world, and how to examine reality. These themes are supposed to prepare kids on how to actively participate in critical thinking, having discussions between each others, where information comes from etc.

   In classes 4-6 the focus is mainly on Nordic history from 800-1900. Vikings, Christianization period, archeological findings, contemporary living standards, how a state is built, historical sources, the power struggle between the Nordic states, the Swedish Empire, agricultural developments, the industrialization, the emigration to America, and of course causes and consequences of all this as well as use of history (historiebruk) of these periods as in how are they portrayed today.

   In classes 7-9 it’s more about world history and modern history. Antiquity and how it influenced our modern society. Colonization, industrialization, slavery, revolutions, the emergence of new ideas, social classes and political ideologies. European nationalism, imperialism, different forms of democracies and dictatorships. Both World Wars, causes and consequences, as well as the holocaust and gulags and peoples’ resistance against oppression. Democratization, equality, the cold war.

   Essentially, there is a lot of critical thinking and source criticism; how to approach sources, discussion and exchange of ideas between each others, how the use of history is applied, how our society became what it is.

   Then in gymnasieskolan, our version of high school, you can study more history depending on what program you chose. In those courses you’ll pretty much study the same but even more in-depth and it’ll be more focus on historiography, use of history and historical lenses (historiesyner).

10. Swede here: Well yes we start with stone age and goes forward. Sweden was super power in Europe so we have had a lot war ( Many with Denmark), invading countries and kings and queen before we get to World War I . Remember for us history classes isnt just about our own, we do the world too at the same time. We get to know about the native Americans , Slave trade, presidents, immigrants , not everything cute and cuddle, we learn about the dark parts too, because nothing happens in a vacuum. We are all part of the world and the bigger picture is taught too.

11. In France, history (at the academic level, but this is reflected at lower levels too) is divided into four periods:

    – Ancient (~ -3000 aka the invention of writing to the Vth century AD, 476 often being the symbolic date because of the fall of the Western Roman Empire)

    – Medieval (Vth century to 1453, the fall of Constantinople, or 1492, fall of Granada and first Columbus journey to America)

    – Modern (1492 to the French Revolution)

    – Contemporary (Napoléon to now)

    The boundary between modern and contemporary is particularly debatable, but this gives you a general idea. Now, in primary school, the teachers are not necessarily all that competent to teach history tbh, so it can vary greatly, but you’ll get history lessons that follow the same basic broad outline as in middle school but abbreviated. Middle school in France is 4 years, and in history it goes like this:

    – 1st year: First you do prehistory and early history, with the evolution of humanity, the neolithic revolution, invention of writing and first states in the fertile crescent. Then you do Greece and the Roman Republic, comparing their political systems and an emphasis on their religion which then connects to a history of judaism in that period. Finally, you move on to the Roman Empire, the birth of Christianity and a tiny bit of China right at the end, which often gets skipped tbh.

    – 2nd year: First part is structured around three medieval empires: the Caliphate(s), the Byzantine Empire and the Carolingian Empire, and the Mediterranean as the place they all interact. Then you look at the social organization of medieval Europe: feudalism, the role of the Church, and specifically the construction of the early French state. Then you veer into early Modern (as per above), with the “Discovery Age”, humanism, the Reformation and absolute monarchy.

    – 3rd year: First it’s a look at social/economic organization of late modern French (and European) society, including the triangular trade, and also the Enlightenment. Then you go into the French Revolution and Napoléon’s Empire. Then the industrial revolution and second wave colonisation, and finally the Third Republic.

    – 4th year: the World Wars, then decolonisation and the Cold War + history of the EU, then the IVth and Vth Republics, aka history of France post-WW2.

    In highschool, you’re really just expanding on all of the above, starting again from the Greek City-states, formation of the Nation States, French Revolution etc. just diving deeper on specific periods that broaden out to general ideas of how societies function, and a more international approach in general, especially for the 20th Century.

12. We do actually have a [canon](https://www.canonvannederland.nl/en/) of Dutch history. It is supposed to serve as a guideline for primary school teachers, as well as teachers of the first 2 grades of secondary school. It is reviewed periodically and recently they tried to pay more attention to women in history. [More information on wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_of_the_Netherlands)

    In secondary school we do cover a lot more periods and other countries. Prehistorical times, middle ages, renaissance and modern times. Especially colonialism gets quite a lot of attention, but not only the “good” parts anymore (so not only our Dutch Golden age). I do have to say it mostly focusses on the western world, so Asia, Africa and South America don’t get talked about a
    if it isn’t in relation to something Europeans did. But of course you can’t discuss ALL of history in secondary school

13. I can’t remember much about my own schooldays but I’ve gotten to see some current high school history books at work and I’m impressed with them. There are three compulsory history courses at high school. The first one is about how history is researched and recorded and how to look at sources critically (that’s a theme in all of the books, there are a lot of exercises where the student analyses propaganda images and things like that, for example an image of a semi-naked Putin) and there’s a general history of the western world from the stone age. The second course is about international relations starting from the 19th century and ending with the January 6 attack in the US and the war in Ukraine (the book is updated twice every year, if necessary). The third compulsory course is about the history of independent Finland.

    There are also three national elective courses. The schools can offer different elective classes as well but they won’t be included in the matriculation exam. One is about the development of European culture, starting with ancient Greece. There’s an emphasis on analysing works of art and architecture. The second is about Finnish history before independence. The third one is about various cultures around the world and how their encounters with Europeans have happened (obviously, mostly very badly).

14. History education in the Netherlands is something pupils get in two or three cycles. The first cycle is in primary school, the second cycle in the early years of secondary school and the third cycle is optional and happens if you choose history as part of your exam profile. For each cycle the depth and scope is calibrated to the level of the pupil.

    Each cycle covers [ten time periods](https://www.tijdvakken.nl/), these are usually named:

    1. Period of hunters and gatherers
    2. Period of Greeks and Romans
    3. Period of monks and knights
    4. Period of cities and states
    5. Period of discoverers and reformers
    6. Period of regents and monarchs
    7. Period of wigs and revolutions
    8. Period of citizens and steam engines
    9. Period of World Wars
    10. Period of television and computer

    It is mostly a mix of Dutch, (West) European and world history. If one takes history for the final exam there is often a particular focus theme that is chosen which will get some extra attention, usually something that happened in the late nineteenth or twentieth century. That is in addition to some 50 more general developments that you need to be able to describe and explain in some detail using certain [‘characteristical aspects’](http://www.geschiedenisexamens.nl/kenmerkende-aspecten.html) or keywords.

    Furthermore there is also a [‘canon of the Netherlands’](https://www.canonvannederland.nl/), which is a collection of 50 objects, themes or persons that have been deemed important enough that they should receive some attention during class. There is often quite a struggle as to what should be included and excluded, so every time they change it there is some uproar, mostly by politicians or historians who feel that their favourite subject is also very important. This uproar comes and goes in waves though.

15. What part of USA are you from?

    We just moved here in August and my daughter’s classes seem a lot more comprehensive than what you described.

    I don’t know what they teach in primary school, but at the high school here it’s:

    Year 9: mandatory World History, optional art history

    Year 10: mandatory US History, optional art history, optional US government, optional world religions

    Year 11: advanced US history, European history, or advanced Modern World History, optional art history, optional world religions, optional US government and politics, optional world government and politics, optional human geography, optional macroecon, optional microecon, optional Chinese language and culture, optional Japanese language and culture, optional model united nations

    Year 12: everything optional

    From what I heard from other parents, almost everyone takes art history their first or second year because it is the only university level social science class available to 9th and 10th years, and you get extra points on university applications for taking university level classes. Then almost everyone takes one or two uni-level history classes in 11th year, and then in 12th year people usually don’t do any history at all, or take a uni-level course in the first term and then fill their second term with the easiest course load imaginable because university applications are over at that point.

    So my impression on history education in USA is quite different from what you described. I don’t think you can take a course on state history even if you wanted to

    Anyways, I went to a British international school in Germany. You could choose between geography, global politics, world history, philosophy, religions, and anthropology there. Divided into high level and standard level classes. My experience probably isn’t very indicative as it wasn’t a German public school though.

16. The curriculum is usually pretty flexible, apart from at GCSE (exams you take aged 16) and A-level (exams you take aged 18). GCSE and A-level history exams are usually set by one of around 3-4 different exam boards (usually OCR, Edexcel or AQA), each with their own fixed curriculum. The choice of which exam board to go with is usually made by the teacher.

    In school we went in roughly chronological order, but tended to focus on specific events where the interpretation of what happened was marginally debatable (within quite strict limits of course, we weren’t doing Holocaust denial), and where we would have assignments looking at the quality of various sources in assessing a historical event, as well as some discursive essays answering questions like “Was Chamberlain right to do appeasement?” or “Why did the Spanish Armada fail?”.

    I only moved to the UK when I was 10, but after that our curriculum went something along the lines of this:

    – Year 5: Prehistoric Britain, why and how was Stonehenge built, Celtic Britain (all I remember is that they built their houses out of wattle and daub. I have never found any reason to use this information in my daily life ever again), Roman Britain

    – Year 6: Anglo-Saxon England, the events of 1066, William Rufus dying in a hunting accident, who killed the Princes in the Tower, the Wars of the Roses

    – Year 7: Henry VII, Henry VIII, the Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries, Edward VI and Bloody Mary killing everyone who wasn’t part of their religion, Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada

    – Year 8: The gunpowder plot, Charles I and the leadup to the English Civil War, the American War of Independence, the French Revolution and terror, Napoleon

    – Year 9: The causes of the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin. The rise and fall of Apartheid SA.

    – GCSE (I think I did OCR): David Lloyd George’s social welfare reforms, the Women’s suffrage movement, the Treaty of Versailles, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany

17. We started with the stone age, bronze age then iron age. Back then, everything after seemed boring to me, so I don’t recall what we covered between 7th-8th grade. I moved to the U.S. after that (been back in Denmark for over 25 years).

18. It starts with prehistoric humans, cave paintings, old tools, first settlements, etc. Then the first civilizations in Mesopotamia and then on the Nile delta, then the Crete Minoan and so on.

    Greek Polises around the Mediterranean, birth of Rome, the Etruscans, Romulus and Remus, Alexander the Great and his conquests, punic wars with Carthage, birth of the Roman Empire, bunch of different roman emperors, Julius Cesar, Mark Antony, Cleopatra..

    Birth of christianity and christianization of Rome, the empire splitting into west and east, the coming of germanic “barbarians”, the Huns, the Ostrogothic and Visigothic kingdoms, the Frankish kingdom, the coming of slavs and then Charlemagne and soon after that our ancestors and these lands came under germanic protection, from the Avars to the east. I think it was Bavarians, but not sure. Around this time, few decades give or take, the Frankish Empire split into three, we came under the eastern part and pretty much stayed protected for the next thousand years. The vikings are also mentioned around this time, around 8th, 9th century.

    The Frankish Empire was later succeeded by the Holy Roman Empire, which was a big deal, as it shaped much of today’s Europe. The anglo-saxons, the english vs. norman-french. The christianization of pagan slavs and Freising Manuscripts. Then the crusades to Jerusalem, the Knights Templar, etc. Emperor Maximilian I as a key figure in expanding the influence of the Habsburg dynasty in HRE. The Habsburgs as arguably the most important family in european history, at least around these parts. Maria Theresia especially, but she comes a bit later.

    Meanwhile we have the naval explorers because of the rise of islam and the Ottomans who caused an end to the Silk Road. The fall of Byzantine Empire. Going west across the ocean, to find a way to India. Magellan, Vasco da Gama, Columbus.. The pillaging of south americans, enrichment of Spain and Portugal, first colonies.

    Rennaisance, Leonardo da Vinci, etc. the black plague before that, peasant uprisings of our ancestors against the Vienesse rulers and the local feudalism (spoiler: they got crushed, but the longest one lasted for 5 months I think). Reformation, our first printed books by Trubar in 1550. Baroque absolutists, humanism and enlightenment, compulsory schooling of children (Maria Theresia), the american independence, the end of HRE, now Austrian Empire. Random battles and wars across Europe. Frederick the Great, Napoleon, Peter the Great, spanish degenerate habsburg kings, Napoleon and then the french revolution and the birth of liberalism.

    Then the Austria-Hungary and woops it’s the ww1. We mention possible reasons for the war, beyond just the assassination, like continental empires being jelaous of the coastal empires having colonies and stealing so much stuff.

    After the war, we get our first state, that was not under a germanic protection/ruler, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. But it was short lived, because it didn’t get recognition, so it joined the Kingdom of Serbia, serbs became the majority and once again we had to learn a foreign language to speak in a foreign parliament/court. Meanwhile there is a revolution in Russia, then the Weimar Republic pushes germans into eating up Hitler’s magical words of a thousand year long german reich. The split of Slovenia into fascist italian part and nazi german part, the split of slovenians into homeguard and partisan associates. Partisans were on the victorious side, so we get a communist revolution, Carinthian slovenes decide they prefer Austria, and we get stalinism for the first few years until the Tito-Stalin split in the fine prints of their ideology. Then it’s mostly ok until Tito dies.

    After that controversial era of being a third world country (not western capitalist and not soviet style communist), people here made a referendum for independence in 1990, it passed with 95% or so.. We got a 10 days war, got away pretty much unharmed since Croatia also declared independence, and then Bosna.. the Yugoslav (serbian) army focused on those areas and that became the infamous Yugoslav wars of the 90s.

    Sorry for the long text, I tried to mention only the important things, but missed some anyways. History is complicated and very interesting.

19. Apart from a run through of the usual suspects – “Western Civilization”, most of UK History teaching since the 80s (bearing in mind that the different constituent countries of the UK have different curricula) has tended to focus on methods of historical research rather and close case studies rather than trying to voer a broad sweep of history.

    So, in primary school, we learned briefly about:

    I. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.
    II. The Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Danes and Normans.
    III. Mediaeval Scotland, France and England (Bruce and Wallace).
    IV. The “Age of Exploration” (Vasco de Gama, Columbus, Magellan, Drake), The Renaissance (Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots), The Reformation (John Knox).
    V. The Union of Crowns, Civil War (Covenanters), and the Union of Parliaments.

    Then, in secondary school (from age 11 or 12) it was all about “This is historical method”, these are primary and secondary sources, this is essay writing (we basically learned to write structured arguments as much in History as in English) – based on weighing up points of view to give a balanced conclusion.

    To learn about that, the case studies I remember were: 1. Skara Brae (a Neolithic site in Orkney) 2. The assassination of JFK. 3. Trepaning. 4. The Slave Trade.

    That was S1 and S2 I think. There was less history, because we alternated: History one term, Geography the next.

    In S3 and 4 (age 15-17) I recall we did the Russian revolution, the causes of WWI, and the agricultural and industrial revolutions.

    And in S5 we did the League of Nations, Rise of Fascism, Manchuria, Abyssinia, Hitler, Hitler, Hitler. That year, you were totally at the mercy of your teacher, and if they chose a different topic – one was something like “Changing Patterns of Scottish Rural Life from 1600-1900” you were stuck with it.

    In S6 we did Victorian politics – Gladstone, Disraeli, The Empire was finally mentioned!