I’m guessing because there is no historical film of most of the actual events being taught about
Have they ever heard of history books? There are thousands of good ones. They can actually read while they are learning history.
Why are they watching movies in history?
Why are they watching movies in history?
Most History teachers don't teach history anymore, they teach "Current Events" or they teach the liberal version of history that concludes every section with "And that is why America is wrong."
You mention books. That's funny. Most kids can't read today, at least not at the level that kids even 20 years ago could.
The reason you show movies is to show kids that history is real. It isn't some boring story in a boring book that they don't want to read.
It's real. It's real guns, real blood, real death and real consequences.
Good teachers today use whatever it takes to bring these mind numbed zombie survivors from modern elementary schools into real contact with the subjects they are teaching.
If that includes watching a movie at the start of a section, that's what they will do. Look at the movies, and you can see U.S. history in them:
The Patriot - U.S. Revolution
Glory - U.S. Civil War
Uprising and Private Ryan - WWII
We Were Soldiers - Vietnam
I can easily see how these movies could be used to introduce a section to kids and make them want to learn more about what they saw.