Seriously, we learned about it every year without fail. I think the only class that we didn't learn about it was my senior year of history when I had a teacher whose entire curriculum was teaching us about all the Communist dictatorships, which is why I know about the Cultural Revolution and The Great Leap Forward. Looking back I was very fortunate to have that teacher and I really wish I still had the book on Mao we read for that class. It was really accessible and concise.