I suspect that one factor in what appears to be a numerical weighting in favour of the USA has to do with the form of government. Many countries adopt a parliamentary style of government, including some who have presidents; in such countries the head of state is someone other than the head of the executive arm of government. For example, in the UK (and fifteen other Commonwealth countries), the head of state is currently Elizabeth II. If I write a quiz about a President of the USA as head of state, it goes under Government. If I write a quiz about The Queen it will go in the People section. There are a lot of quizzes about historical monarchs in People even though many of them did actually run the country and probably belong under Government whereas the current queen doesn't even run her own bath water. Similarly, a question about the President of Singapore should go under People rather than Government because the role is largely ceremonial and not executive. However because the USA combines the two roles, head of government and head of state, all quizzes about every aspect of the office and the person in office goes into the Government section. I'm not sure why questions about First Ladies go under Government, or Presidents' Families, or various other minutiae - but they do and because they do the number of quizzes on USA issues is much larger than for the rest of the world where functions are split and where politicians' families aren't given much if any prominence. I'm sure it would be possible to write a few questions about Sam Cameron but maybe not a whole quiz, and it goes against our style of government to give her that sort or status - the spouse of the Prime Minister gets little, and usually no, prominence unless he/she has some in his/her own right.

Another difference is our attitude. Most of the time we don't care about it much. Well, not enough to write quizzes. In the Government section there are over sixty quizzes on Campaigns and Elections. American of course. There may well be some references somewhere to a British election but there are not many Brits who'd go to the trouble of writing a whole quiz about an election, we're just glad when they're over. And they only last three weeks anyway, that's one law we all agree about.

Maybe we should pin the blame on the authors of the Magna Carta.
"All men are equal before the law."
"All men?"
"Okay, all barons are equal."
"Not men? What about women?"
"Just barons."
"Well, it was a nice idea, let's keep that bit... and that bit over there but not the rest."
"Write it down on this post-it note."
"Does it have to be in Latin?"
"Nope, we'll stick it on the fridge and everything will be fine."
"Should I write a quiz on it in 2013?"
"Maybe a question for the New Question Game."
"Or maybe not. Beer?"

The category name could be changed from WORLD Government to American Government and Rest of the World Goverment

That's a good point - I may have heard the name of our Prime Minister's wife somewhere, but certainly can't recall it off the top of my head.

Our election campaigns lasting six weeks or so rather than a year have something to do with it, too.

I agree with Flopsy, "beer".

Your shout then, p_a (we can be honorary Aussies for the day to prove that we're not too insular).

To go back to the original point - I just play whatever is put in front of me and don't worry too much about the content. I've learned a lot by playing the quizzes, even if some of it I didn't feel the need to learn. Topics come up which suit me, and others I don't much care for, but it tends to balance out in the end.

Flopsy, that read like 1066 And All That rewritten for the 21st century.
Planning on a publishing jaunt?
Salami, I find the American members of our team amusing and very unselfcentred, so I think your label does your country credit.

I agree, Tizabelle 'The country of my ancestors is known for being insular and unfriendly at first.'

However, like Japan, when you have a large and diverse population squashed into a small area, being insular, minding your own business and not crashing around in other people's spaces is also an important lifeskill.

I remember being with a school trip of 7 year olds at Victoria underground station in London when an imposing stereotype stepped off the tube, white stetson, cowboy boots, belt, silver buckle, huge camera, ...
He yelled ' YEEEHAAA HELLO LONDON YEEHAA!' very loudly in a confined and crowded space.
The children were frightened, but I said in my very best schoolteacher voice
'Don't be alarmed, he's an American and he thinks he's being friendly' and they stopped trying to squash themselves into a pack behind me and relaxed.
He did have the grace to apologise for being overexcited.
Culture clashes can be educational.

Thanks, that's so sweet.

I think, on FT, we all feel truly part of "one world", and the national divisions don't mean anything here. That's my favorite part of the site.

I didn't mean England or any part of the UK if that's what you're thinking. I don't have drop of British blood in me anywhere!

You should have read what I wrote about the constitution, i.e. the one we have which no one bothered to write down. Only then I realised that on FT the US Constitution quizzes aren't in the Government section so I deleted my purple prose.

Know any publishers? I was going to say good publishers but I'm not proud.

You're kidding, right? When I was a kid, they taught me about Egypt, Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and all the ancient stuff. Junior High, I had the world's most boring history teacher. I have long forgotten what he was trying to teach. High school, they started with more current stuff and not just American history.

I know I am older than you and I know the curriculum changes over time, but never did I think it would change so much so fast.

Keep in mind that different states (just like different Canadian provinces) have different school curricula.

Complete aside though.

Government!

But that wouldn't fall into the government category being discussed.

I did learn about that stuff, but somehow, it was always evilly twisted as to how these ancient civilizations were predecessors to the American form of government and how they fall into place with American history.

In my opinion, ancient Greek history has nothing to do with modern-day America, but my teachers thought different, apparently.

I never said it did. I was only responding to your statement that you didn't learn about anything outside the US until you came to this site.

And yes, ancient Greek history does have a connection to modern day United States. It's called democracy.

I suppose there is a connection: But I'd still like to learn about other country's history and geography and culture WITHOUT our government trying to make everything like to America. We're a fairly new country; surely not everything about every country out there relates to the US.

Oh well, it's not a big issue. I just learned differently, I guess. :P

'not everything about every country out there relates to the US.'

Really?

'The United Kingdom. Slightly smaller than Oregon'
CIA World Factbook'

I agree with you, Salami, though I also agree with Anton that I do remember learning about world cultures in school too. Goodness me it seems that in lower education (grades K-12), we were taught that EVERYTHING relates to the USA, that in fact we are the inheritors of the banner of Western Civilization, that we are the denouement in the narrative of Western Civ since Ancient Greece, etc. etc. I'm NOT saying I believe that; I'm saying that is how American students are taught (indoctrinated?) about the USA's place in world history, whether implicitly or explicitly. God bless America! I only learned to question that notion at university. I wonder if other nations teach their children this sort of thing, but favoring their country?

Well, that explains a lot!
No, we are taught British history, but the slant tends to be slightly apologetic about the Empire.

In Canada I was taught Canadian history, but it was obviously linked to U.S and UK (and French) history.

In high school, specifically tenth grade, we had a larger overview; a lot more general 'world history'. I remember a unit on WWII specifically, and learning a lot about Japan. Not sure why that stuck out..,

Then I stopped taking history courses.

...and started MAKING history.

...Not really.

Edit: Also, for anyone interested, the challenge has commenced.
http://www.funtrivia.com/bb.cfm?action=details&qnid=27699&boardid=2222222

I did a WWII unit in grade 10 history too, but it was still very Canada-oriented. Grade 10 history in the Ontario curriculum is supposed to be Canadian history.

I remember being surprised when I took a 2nd year university course of an overview of European history during the WWI. It was presented so objectively whereas everything I'd learned up to that point was very "woohoo, go Allies!"

To pick up gracious1's question, when I was taught Australian history it definitely had a WASP (white Anglo-Saxon protestant) bias, with emphasis on the strong links to the 'Old Country' (England). The role of the aborigines was regarded as largely superficial. It was all about the explorers and the opening up of the country - perhaps a little like the movement west in the USA. Then the teaching of Australian History went through a change where we were apologetic for everything, especially the appalling treatment of our indigenous people. I think now there is a much better integration of both of these aspects to provide a more-rounded and profound narrative (at least that's what I'm seeing when I look at my children's school history texts).

One of the most interesting themes is the effect of what historian Geoffrey Blainey called 'The Tyranny of Distance' - how Australia's remoteness from the rest of the world during the 18th and 19th centuries was manifest in it's development and international outlook.

Despite all that, the most interesting History unit I did was on the development of right wing movements. It was the first time for me that history moved from facts and figures to consideration of the drivers and results of social change.

As for the substantive topic of this thread, I'm not at all bothered by the US focus of many of the 'Government' questions. I find most of it interesting (apart from the maiden names of President's wives, which I would need tattooed on my arm to have any chance of remembering!). Perhaps it's because we lived in Canada and the US for several years.... My kids went to school in the US (New York state) in 2010 and the curriculum there (admittedly grades 4 & 6) was not that much different to Australia. Social studies were on the Egyptians and Sumerians as well as the Greeks.

That's my 2c worth .... which in Oz is rounding down to 0 as we now don't have any coins smaller than 5c!

I can't speak for other states, but I learned about Texas History in 7th grade, US History in 8th and 9th, and World History in 10th grade. The 6th grade social studies classes were more geared toward what Anton is referring to above. It has been nearly 20 years since I graduated high school, but it seems like now these history/government classes are staying US-based. I did take a Government class as a senior, and it was primarily US Government.



They've been trying to delete the penny here for awhile. For people like Steve Noviello, what will he say at the end of his segment?

Canada's losing the penny this coming month (this coming week, I think).

Oh never mind. I made a mistake. Ignore this post. Nothin' to see.

They've been talking about removing the pennies for years. It hasn't happened yet. I will be THRILLED when they do. They're such a pain and waste of money.

How well said.

Take a look at the thread over in the World Forum inspired by this discussion.

Up here in Scotland we were mostly taught about the Wars of Scottish Independence in second year of secondary school (at least from what I remember) and then in standard grade (again, from what I remember) there was an extreme emphasis on both world wars and between with the rise of the Nazi party and the Weimar Republic. Plus things like coal mining and British housing during the nineteenth century. Then in fifth year in higher history we had Italian unification, the Weimar Republic and Britain's attempt at appeasement during the 1930s (see what I mean by extreme emphasis?).

Haha, Cuish, I'm Scottish too, and it was pretty much the same for us - Weimar Republic, WWII, Nazi Party, and British housing and Industrial Revolution.

I grew up in Massachusetts, and remember that Grade 4 had a lot of the history of my town. Then there was Grade 6 Geography which actually did history of the selected countries - at one point we each got a different Central or South American country assigned, and had to produce areport and represent our country in a public performance. I learned a lot about Peru, but of the others only remember the fact that the boy who was supposed to to West indies (don't ask, I know it's not a proper country as such) did India, with an elephant on the cover. Grade 7 was American History, with a teacher who used lots of chalk cartoons - i remember the pilot dropping a brick on the soldiers in the trenches to show us the first use of aerial bombing in WWI. Grade 8 was Ancient History - Egypt, Greece and Rome. Then I moved to another state and school, and Grade 9 was supposed to be Ancient History again, so I had a special program that gave me a year of science that I hadn't had in my old school, where you were either in the Latin class or the Science class. Grade 10 was English History, with appropriate works of literature and the history of art, dress and architecture thrown in. Grade 11 I didn't choose the history elective, grade 12 American History was a compulsory subject. Actually, it was American until we got to the 20th century, post WWI, when we spent a month studying either Russia or China. And 1969 was the end of my formal study of any kind of history.

I chose History as a subject in school and got Syllabus F; Revolution, Reaction and Reform (from the Agricultural Revolution to the American Revolution). The trouble was that the teacher was so slow that we only completed 2/3 of the coursework.