(no subject)

[tanaise]

Oh, come to think of it, I remember the biggest omission in school. The Flu Epidemic in 1918. I'm surprised I didn't remember this earlier, seeing as I figure if any of the Edwardian boys survive the war, they'd probably not make it through the flu. But I *never* heard a single mention of the flu in HS, and we did study that time period. I mean, not learning anything past 1945/50 is one thing--we ran out of time before we got up to that time. But we studied WWI and WWII, so when I graduated high school and was mid way through college, and found an article much like that in the Smithsonian, I think, I was like, "they're joking, right?" That many people die--possibly twice as many as black death, which we did learn about in school--and it wasn't even mentioned. It really annoyed me when I figured out that we'd never even been told about it. And I still don't have any clue why it wasn't even just *mentioned*. I mean, did I just miss that day?

Comments

[tikimama.livejournal.com]

I can't ever remember hearing about it in school, either. And I thought I had excellent US History (it was AP). I guess an epidemic isn't that interesting, there were no financial repurcussions, which is what general history tends to focus on.

Although, come to think it is, that whole period is sort of vague. I think we skipped right from the Civil War to the Roaring 20's, just so we could talk about the backlash of the Depression. Of course, this was the 80's, so we were in the middle of our own Dark Ages.

[eudaimonia.livejournal.com]

I remember my grandparents talking about the great flu epidemic. They had many friends and family die during that time. I'm surprised too that we didn't learn about it in school. The only way I knew about it was from my grandparents.

[pkhardy.livejournal.com]

I recall it being mentioned in AP American History, but I don't recall coming away with a real feel for how epidemic the epidemic was, if you see what mean. That could as easily have been my 15-year-old failure to grasp the big picture as any any failure on the part of my teacher or text, though. My effort level in that class was not, shall we say, ideal.

. . . I figure if any of the Edwardian boys survive the war, they'd probably not make it through the flu.

I much prefer believing they grew up to be Tolkien and Lewis. :-)

[podling]

Yeah, we didn't cover that in mine either...

From Becca on LAHS

[(Anonymous)]

No, the Flu Epidemic was indeed skipped - I learned about it in college.
Also, remember learning in fifth grade that "only pure water evaporates"??

From Becca on School Lies

[(Anonymous)]

Ooh! Also "hair is made of dead cells" -- I think I even saw that one in our textbook!