As a kid, I would spent hours upon hours in our den reading through the World Book Encyclopedia.
My daughter (8th grade) gave a presentation on the Holocaust for History Day a few weeks ago. At the end several boys were asking questions like “How could one guy kill millions of people - that’s impossible”. “If he did that, someone would have stopped him”. “You can’t kill people just because they don’t have the same religion as you”.
She politely answered the questions, and afterwards I told her (it was a parent’s night thing) that she did a good job with those boys teasing her. She gave me a puzzled look.
“You know - with them asking stupid questions and stuff.”
“Um - dad - they were serious.”
“Huh?”
“They were serious, they didn’t know anything about the Holocaust.”
“Huh? Isn’t that what you’ve been studying and why you did the presentation on it?”
“No, we haven’t learned it in school. I did it because it was interesting.” (We had the Diary of Anne Frank in the house that she had read a couple years earlier)
I too spent many an hour reading through our old World Books.
Ours was from 1957 so it was a bit outta date for the 70s but I loved reading them just the same.
I believe it.
Simmilar story for me. Short version Daughter in HS. Report on Revolutionary war. Result, passed with high grade.
The report ENDED at Revere’s ride. I asked “Where’s the war?”
She replied...”That’s all they taught us.”
I taught her the rest.