This chapter explores the ‘I didn’t learn that in school’ experience, that is recurrently expressed across Australian generations. It argues that expressions of ‘not learning’ in school are closely related to broader metanarratives of ‘not knowing’ that characterise settler Australian collective memory. This familiar refrain locates blame for not knowing Australia’s fulsome Indigenous and colonial histories with deficient schooling. This chapter examines recursive experiences of ‘not learning’ alongside systemic reforms from the 1970s onwards, which aimed to address deficiencies in the teaching and learning of Australian history. This includes renewed scrutiny of the 1970s–1990s decades, of which relatively little is known due to devolved curriculum and relative lack of digitised school materials. It also considers legacies of the national curriculum era and its yet-unfinished promise to end the ‘great Australian silence’ in education once and for all. In conclusion, the chapter suggests lines of inquiry that lay groundwork for a deeper investigation of this entrenched phenomenon.