Аннотация

History education in the United States is in crisis. This article notes that history is the worst-taught subject in American high schools and explains why. Part of the problem is that teachers, whose background in history is often weak, rely to too great an extent on textbooks that are boring and avoid the most important historical issues. But teachers can teach against[*] as well as with textbooks, getting students to challenge rather than merely accept what they read. Historic sites also often avoid troublesome issues. Again, teachers can help students to critique rather than accept what monuments, museums, and historical markers tell about the past.