To The Editor:
The history books studied in public schools contain much varied information relating to our country’s past; information which hopefully will induce students to become good citizens. Along with the words these texts bear in abundance, if not an excess of time designating numerals. It seems every significant person or event from America’s past, worthy of description, must have nearby its page place the company of at least one date.
If from curiosity or frustration a pupil asks why is it important to know when George Washington entered the world or for that matter left it, he or she will be treated to a reply having a resemblance to this: dates place events in sequence and sequence is important to learning history lessons. This justification, popular though it may be, when put to scrutiny, loses luster. There is no evidence instruction centered around an era’s foremost date, say, 1776 for the Revolutionary period, and leaving undated all contributory events is harder to establish in memory than if all events were individually dated. Logically, the former appears to have an advantage in a competing memorization effort due to the events being carried in thought unencumbered by the weight of their occurrence in time.
Also noteworthy, prior to the 1950s history textbooks and lectures contained far fewer dates than now, yet pupils then matured into adults who overwhelmingly supported, sacrificed for, and participated in, our country’s government.
RAY LEWIS
Corbin City
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