There were certain basic courses I had to finish before I could graduate from High School, but they weren’t the challenge some make them out to be. Reading, writing, and rhetoric is pretty easy to master. Math and science can be a bit harder if you’re going into the more advanced forms, but we only needed the basic levels to graduate. Music and sports were the ones I loved the most. It was on history that the schools really concentrated though. It was their job to teach us how we got to where we were, how we built the worlds we all lived in. They taught us why the Declaration of Independence, and the Gettysburg Address were important. Why the words “I have a dream,” “Tear down this wall,” and “Build the wall” all affected how we grew up. How the race and debt riots changed everything. Why the First Great Depression hobbled unbridled Capitalism, and the Second Great Depression starved Socialism. They taught us what it meant to be American, so we could go to college and learn the skills we needed for our chosen profession. I passed the basics with ease, but was always more interested in studying the intricacies of girls than anything else. Unless the two came together. Then, I assure you, I could focus on the relevant subjects with remarkable success.