A junior high school student sits down with his world history textbook, and he wonders what all this stuff has to do with him. Clearly, people like Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon had a great impact on the world in which they lived, but what do the Rubicon and Waterloo have to do with that thirteen-year-old American boy?
When he gets to senior high school, that same student may find a greater sense of relevance in his American history textbook. It is easier for him to see the connection between Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and the contemporary world in which he lives.
Still, the history lacks a very personal quality. After all, the best that can be said is that those famous individuals and events helped to set the present stage, directly or indirectly. But they …