This afternoon I was watching a documentary called Uprising: Hip Hop and the LA Riots. I had no idea the riots were as bad as they were, or that they lasted for as long as they did. It was kind of an eye opening experience. Of course I knew the riots happened, but it was 1992. As I've grown older, I realized that there were many news worthy events which happened in the early 90's that I'm not really that informed about. It's that spot in life where I was too young to understand what was really going on... but it was so recent that it wasn't taught in school as I got older.
The first time I really noticed this was back in undergrad. I took a class called Critical Issues in Recent Global History. My professor was talking about details from the Gulf War from the early 90's. Each of my classmates and I must have had puzzled looks on our faces, because he stopped lecturing and asked us a couple of questions. I can't recall what the questions were, but I remember his response as something to the effect of "you guys don't really know this stuff, do you?" No, we really didn't.
Since that moment, I've tried to take opportunities to learn more about events that I somehow "missed" (for lack of a better word).
I guess that's a testament to the need to teach current events in schools. History is happening every day. It's such a strange feeling to have been alive during these events, but not really knowing much about it.
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