Another thing to keep in mind is that the college curricula teaching Western Civ in the current manner has only been around for around a century.
Before that, the older college curricula followed the old classics pattern where EVERY undergrad* was mandated to learn the classics IN THE ORIGINAL Ancient Hebrew, Greek, Latin, etc. Not read them in modern English translation.
In fact, most of what was taught in US/Western Universities and the manner in which it was taught up until the late 19th/early 20th century would be quite alien to most current undergrads or those of the last several decades**.
Incidentally, the idea of a core curriculum in which Western Civ is taught as a component only came about sometime at the end of WWI. Not a longstanding tradition dating back to the founding of the American Republic or further back…to the dawn of the founding of the first Western universities/colleges.
- With the exception of Engineering/Tech oriented institutions such as West Point which was one of the tiny handful of engineering/tech college for a sizable chunk of the early 19th century.
** Possible exception being students at St. John’s College except I don’t think the language requirements are as extensive as they were in the old classics pattern.