What?!?

Today Mark has 3 tests, Social Studies, Science and Math.  Naturally he wanted me to review the material with him yesterday.  Getting a 6th grader to study after being cooped up in a class room for 8 hours is slightly more enjoyable than sticking pins in your eyes.  I decided we would review Social Studies first.  Social Studies is not a subject that I found interesting in middle school and I totally understand his reluctance to study for his test.  When you are twelve you hardly care about the past, only about the NOW.  Why would anyone want to study about something that happened 1000 years before the Wii was even invented.  Boring.  I get it.  We struggled through the review guide the teacher had given out and were working our way through the chapter review when I stumble upon something.  Mark said, "we don't have to learn section 4"  Ok.  moving on.  I looked and section 4 was Religion and Culture .  Wait just a gosh darn minute!  I looked closer and found names like Thomas Aquinas, Francis Assisi,  The Holy Roman Empire, Charlemagne,  Gothic Architecture, The Inquisition, Anti-Semitism.   I started to read the section, as Mark wondered off very un-stealth-like.  Refocusing, I brought Mark back and we finished studying. The idea that this section was left out has bothered me since.  I laid awake and thought about it all night.  I am still concerned today.  I am probably more concerned than your average parent just because I am Catholic. Since this is our first venture into public school I am not sure if this is typical.  It really gave me pause for thought that the school system or the teacher purposely left out several 100 years of history.   I understand the the division of church and state.  Come on, she isn't teaching religion she is explaining the role of the Catholic church and important members who affected history of the Middle Ages.  They have studied Muslims, Jews, Buddhist, but when they come upon a Christian belief they skip over it?  Granted the Church has not always played a positive role in society, and isn't that exactly why they should study it?  Should we not learn from the past?  Isn't that one of the main purposes of studying history?

Tonight it appears we have a section in History to read and review, not for mommy's sake, but for those my children. Maybe we'll all learn a little something.