Why didn't I ever learn about South American History in public school?

Because American education systems are ignorant to the world outside of USA. I am from Australia and while I was at school we learned about all nations, I am sure you would not have Even gone into any details about Australia in your schooling either.

Very sad The USA education board is breeding culturally ignorant people.

Because there is only so much you can learn and some things are put to the way side. I am sure you didn't learn too much about Australian history or Russian history either. US schools are going to concentrate on US history and if certain countries did not have significant impact on how our country evolved, they are generally not talked too much about.

This is true in just about any country. As I understand it, in Britain they do mention that the US took part in WWII but focus mainly on the British battles during that time.

There is a whole world out there with over 5000 years of history in it that we know about. That is a lot of information to process in a few years of school.

I learned about Spanish speaking countries while taking a series of Spanish classes. History was just part of it. I think, as a general rule, History (which isn't taught enough these days) is taught about English speaking countries, or more specifically, countries that had an impact on America (including, rarely, Latin America).

Because South American history had no real bearing on the creation of our own nation. We (USA) study the Romans, Greeks, English, French, etc. because our nation is a direct off-shoot of their's and our nation's culture and laws are fundamentally effected by those other countries. If South America had any significant impact on us as a developing country, then we would study the influence that they had on us.

Yea, I really never learned anything either about South American history in public school.

Odd...

In my history class, we learned about the Mayans and the Aztecs. They both lived in South America

If you had gone to school in a south American country, you would have learned about that country's history. But, you went to school in the U.S., so you leaned about U.S. history.

If you had gone to school in Mongolia you would have learned thier history.

If America knew about history, they wouldn't be so gullible to repeat many of history's mistakes all the time... an ignorant public is easily manipulated by politicians...

Bc/ America covers "American" history

BECAUSE YOU ARE IN AMERICA...you want to learn more about latin america or other countries then take your a$$ to the library. Jeeze, like you would have liked more homework in grade school. I highly doubt that in Latin America they learn about countries that make little or no difference in their culture. Do you think in Brazil they learn about Luxemburg? Doubt it.

Besides, I can attest to it that they are learning it now. My 6th grade son learned a lot about the oil trade, cocaine and coffee trade in South America, I know because I help him with his homework.