It's an interesting reflection. I also didn't learn about this until Watchmen. But my k-12 social studies classes pretty much never cracked the 20th century. There was a year of current events, and we covered both world wars in European history and via English class (Anne Frank), but pretty much every year was a rehash of the Pilgrims onward, never making it much past the Civil War. We didn't study the civil rights movement, either, or Vietnam. Much too recent.
While I suspect most (I'd like to say not all, because there are some teachers I really respect) of my teachers wouldn't have covered it had we made it that far (certainly wasn't in the textbooks), I have no way of knowing.
(The one year that included current events was so vastly different from all my other social studies classes, and I am the better for it. I bet he would have discussed it had it been topical. But this was the 80s, so it was more about Iran-Contra and less about the civil rights movement.)
no subject
While I suspect most (I'd like to say not all, because there are some teachers I really respect) of my teachers wouldn't have covered it had we made it that far (certainly wasn't in the textbooks), I have no way of knowing.
(The one year that included current events was so vastly different from all my other social studies classes, and I am the better for it. I bet he would have discussed it had it been topical. But this was the 80s, so it was more about Iran-Contra and less about the civil rights movement.)