Meant to get back to ya this am re:teaching. I think you are right about the making it relevant and hands on style being able to reach kiddos. It's just that I have seen too many public school kids utterly and completely uninterested in learning of any kind. That is a learned trait BTW. Forces teachers to jump through hoops and get blamed for kids not learning... on the flip side however, much of the history/social studies curriculum has been rehashed, rewritten, and slaughtered to the point where it barely is recognizable as educational material IMO (legislators made it a bunch a PC frap).
Last year, we didn't even use the social studies textbooks to teach what the kids needed to learn. We taught regarding Columbus, the Spanish conquistadors in the New World, The Mayflower, Jamestown, (each of the) Founding Fathers, Revolutionary War, The Louisiana Purchase, national symbols and their significance, and finally Lewis and Clark. We ended the year with a review on public safety and social behavior. The only one of those actually in their text was the whole thing on public safety and social behavior. Guess that is all the state expects from first graders.
hmm, excuse me for the burp.
Yeah, kids who don't want to learn is another big part of the problem. I agree it's a learned trait. Hard for teachers to address that without help from the parents. Teachers have a real uphill battle these days.