A random rant about elementary school history textbook

Parent Cafe
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<p>Kelsmom quoted:</p>

<p>“I always used to laugh at MI State’s animal husbandry degree. Before I knew what it really was, I had a rather humorous picture in my young head of girls in pretty white dresses marrying bulls!” :slight_smile: Guess what my dad’s degree was in??? </p>

<p>(Sorry, I haven’t figured out how to get a passage highlighted for a quote).</p>

<p>As far as history goes, I think a social studies/history teacher can make or break a kid’s interest in the subject. I always hated history b/c all my teachers just made us memorize what seemed to me to be useless facts. It has not been until my new West Point candidate started asking me all kinds of questions about WWI and WWII and wanting me to watch The History Channel and war movies with him from 6th grade on that I had any desire to understand the “whys” of learning history. </p>

<p>My (animal husbandry degree) dad served in the Army in WWII (as a meat inspector, of course!), but I never had any interest in asking him about his service in the U.S. military until son started asking me questions about Germany and Russia…“uh, I don’t know, I don’t think I never learned that stuff”. Well, maybe I was “taught” it, but it was just rote memorization that did not seem to pertain to my life. Unfortunately, my father passed away before s was born, so these are things I can never ask him about.</p>

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<p>“This is correct. A California family that has say four kids will end up with four model mission displays stored in the closet or garage.”</p>

<p>Yup, and just try to suggest that it’s time to throw them away…</p>

63

<p>The textbook issue is another reason why AP classes have an advantage. In those classes, the teachers can use college textbooks and the kids get a much better textbook as a result. My middle-schooler often will read me some especially weakly written sentence in a textbook. The examples the OP gave are just disheartening. How are kids supposed to learn to write well? Or, for that matter, think well?</p>