NB This was ~45 years ago - I doubt such things would be tolerated these days. :-)
Mind you, the fact that it was events on the Isthmus of Panama that were one of the main causes of the union is fairly interesting:
The history curriculum I was taught in school was terribly boring and politicised. Other than the mandatory WW2 coverage, the _only_ other topics we studied were the horribleness of European colonisation, like Gandhi and Apartheid, ect… I was rather surprised to grow up and find out how interesting the topic actually was.