Why is the east's great history mostly ignored by the west ?

Question:

Why is the east's great history mostly ignored by the west ?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: history is a massive subject, even the history of the west cannot be covered properly in schools.

i have taught china in the 20th century to key stage 4 students for g.c.s.e., as part of "the schools history project", for many years.

this project takes "chunks" and themes from history, such as the history of medicine, which covers prehistoric, egyptian, arabic, and western medicine. it's very popular with the students.

other than that, i have taught mogul india with year 8.

there is a tendency to go into a lot of detail these days, which cuts down the number of topics one can cover.

when i was in school in the 60's, we covered the whole pre-history of the world in the first year at grammar school.

i loved it, it had to be very general, but we covered the rise of civilisations - which were all in the east - mesopotamia, assyria, phoenicia, egypt, etc.

the answer in a nutshell is fashion, and the national curriculum, which restricts any choice of topic the history teacher may have.

fashion dictates that students must learn the skills of an historian, analysing sources, empathy, bias, etc., rather than gain an overview of the history of the world.

i do think that pupils should have some idea how their own country developed, before they learn about that country's place in the world, though..

just let me get my hands on planning the national curriculum!