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this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
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Here in the U.S., we cover the Greek stuff A LOT. Like it is hammered into your head. The reason for this is, of course, the U.S. sees itself as the heir to Athenian Democracy and Roman Republicanism, so we have to really emphasize that in our conditionin.... Uhhh education.
Studying Greek classics being used as an "America bad" is the biggest stretch, jfc. Not everything is a conspiracy. Take it down a notch.
That's not an "America Bad" thing, it's just fact? That's the explicit reason for the entire framing of western history in American classrooms. We start with Egypt, then the hand the torch over to the Greeks, then they hand the torch to the Romans, then the Dark Ages (spoooooky), then the Renaissance, the British Empire, and then the USA. It's one of our foundations for American Exceptionalism
I don't think your history experiences sound very typical. I didn't have anything about the Egyptians outside of pyramids in elementary school, very little Greek mythology, and then nothing about the Romans (beyond a bit about how they had good tech like aqueducts), dark ages (maybe a little about the plague and feudalism), or Renaissance. Did you go to a school with extra history requirements or something?
Noooo, I went to, like, 6 different elementary schools to two different states, all in pretty low income areas. This was pretty consistent. But this went well beyond elementary school. When you took world history in high school, what did that look like? This was pretty consistent. And it wasn't just history, this was all blended into English classes and stuff too
Sudying Greek history and mythology merely for the sake of propaganda and as a through line to exceptionalism is not a fact, no.
I see where you're misunderstanding here. It's not the studying, it's the specific western-centric framing that I'm talking about. Unless you spent a lot of time talking about the Ottomans? Or Aboriginal Dreamtime?
I read a lot of Greek mythology on my own and through elective classes but I think the only core course material I had on it was pretty brief. Shakespeare was pretty much every year starting in middle school but not much Greek.
Ya, like most things in the us, it's not ubiquitous. But my experience was similar to yours. We covered it, but it wasn't beaten into us like it was on some "we're the heir to the Athenian dynasty" tip.