Question of the Week: Don't Know Much About History

After an extended absence, here it is, the good old "question of the week" feature! Haphazard though it may be, I kind of like the naming convention, and it is always good fodder for thought. Even if there are a paucity of comments generated.

What would you do to improve history education in the United States?

I guess by that I mean civics education as well, since the idea is people have gotten such a lame education in the roots of this country; its history and the intended role and function of government, that there is potential danger looming.

How to change this? Comments are your friend; have your say...

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One thing I would favor would be putting more emphasis on primary source documents: ie, things actually written by people at the time and place under study. Makes the past much more real than just reading someone's interpretation (and often better written, too).

I remember the thing I loathed the most about history classes when I was back in grade school, was the emphasis on dates. You spend all your time remembering unimportant details about what time something occured rather than focusing on what caused it to occur, all the things that led up to it, and how it's related to other history.
Remember that TV show Head of the Class? That guy was a good teacher because he made things concrete "Next class I'll tell you how a baseball lead to the cuban missile crisis" or "how a wrong turn by a prince's driver lead to WWI".

Just read Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," fascinating but I have to say that the only reason I finished it was that it was a day with few obligations. What I learned about the period and his arguments was great but wading through some of his sentences was difficult. I am not speaking about facts but the style and structure is hard for someone in our time to read.

I almost wrote to Instapundit and suggested that some las professor or history professor offer extra points for students willing to translate ;) Paine, Locke, Federalist papers Second Amendment and everything else important to an understanding of why we are what we are.
Boy, the fights we do have about that last one.