@Ceili,
Have you noticed how many people here argue the difference and label the Democrats/progressives/liberals/etc as fascists and socialists?
When I was in high school, we were required to take a semester of government and a semester of economics. If schools in Michigan did not have a teacher qualified to present those courses, then they could offer Constitutional History which was basically about the Founding Fathers.
When I worked as a college guide at the Henry Ford Museum, I remember coworkers who were angry that they were given what they regarded as a useless course. My college classmates had many different experiences with government and economics as high school students. The beginning course in each discipline was required by my school.
I graduated from high school in 1965 and my former husband graduated in 1960, having attended both a public high school in FL and a prep school in ME. He never had any courses in government.
My mother took civics in high school but civics is about the role of the citizen in government and not about government per se.
The teaching of government is still mixed. Many schools do not currently teach it.
My kids went to a Montessori elementary school and learned how a bill becomes a law in fifth grade, then they researched drilling in the ANWAR and presented their findings to our then Senators, Kennedy and Kerry. It was a life changing and life making experience for my daughter, now 32. The kids had government again in 8th grade in the public schools.