One of the things about U.S schools that drive lots of folks nuts is how decentralized they are. Most other nations have uniform nationwide educational standards (and even curricula), but not the U.S. For us: schools in different states and regions and cities differ, schools in different districts differ, even individual teachers in the same school differ.
(I personally think this decentralization is a big advantage rather than a problem, but that's a different discussion:-)
My own experience (and this is just one school - others will be significantly different) is that these days whether or not something is shown in school is mostly driven by technical issues. If it's on Youtube, or hosted digitally on some other website, or if a DVD can be easily rented, it will likely be shown. But if it's only available on film and so requires a film projector, anything less than top shelf material is practically invisible.
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