American History Excellent

A while ago, I was reading some Wikipedia articles on Phoenix TV stations, and reveling in the history behind them. Not for the first time, I thought about the education I got in history from my formal education in Arizona. I'd say there were gaps in it, but to be truthful, there were more gaps then there was education. Most of the history I remember learning before college concerned the founding of America and cursory coverage of the rest of the world. As far as local history, the only thing I ever got was the Native Americans. As far as I recall, Latino history consisted mainly of a loving tribute to Mexican food conveyed by a children's book. General local history was non-existent. To get any of it at the time, I had to skip ahead in the text books to chapters we weren't ever going to study.

I got more from college, but the vast majority of what I know I learned on my own initiative outside of any educational institution. I seem to have developed a reputation as something of an knowledgeable person, but know more about places I've never been than the place I lived in from birth to the age of twenty-three. That doesn't seem right, does it? I don't know what the reason behind it is. Often the  ills of civic pride are traced back to the paucity of native Arizonas and Phoenicians. A friend and fellow Arizona native and I played a state trivia board game one day years ago, and he just beat the hell out of me. I attribute that lopsided defeat to him being the son of natives, whereas I was born to parents from Connecticut and Florida.

How was I to know answers which didn't pertain to the Hohokam? I do what I can to rectify that. Recent chapters of local history which I've found rather interesting include such lurid matters as the murder of Don Bolles and the case of Winnie Ruth Judd, but there's so much to get into, and I regret that it's not terribly easy to find things. It was nice when I still lived in the Phoenix area, because the main library downtown had a room dedicated to local materials. Here it's just what's online. Still I work at it. I'd like to learn more about Jack Swilling, the old streetcars, the German POW camp- it goes on and on, and not one word was breathed about any of it in a school I attended there.

It's just unfortunate. I don't know if it's different elsewhere. I have to imagine that even if the quality of historical education is no better in other places, they must at least have the good sense to act in their own self-interest and educate the children most about local history in hopes of keeping them around instead of losing bright, promising young minds to other states. I don't know if kids would necessarily benefit from that, but I know I would have appreciated more history and art, and less of a lot of things. That's just how I feel.