Teach Family History in Schools! ...and our kids will learn to love history

Most students don't actually hate learning about history, they just don't see the relevance to their life. First and foremost, teachers must address their question: "Why do I need to know this? Why should I care what happened in the 1800s [or other period]? What's the connection to me?"

Keeping in mind that intrinsic learning is the ideal, what can we do to re-activate that inner curiosity and desire to learn? How can we pique their interest in events that occurred centuries ago? How can we turn a disinterested history student into a history buff?

It is possible to achieve a significant increase in excitement over learning history. How? Make history fun and interesting by adding a Genealogy Class to your history curriculum. Genealogy [aka family history] is the fine art of tracing one's family roots.

Why would tracing one's family history cause an increase in one's interest in history? It creates a personal connection. True, the student didn't live in those historic times, but their ancestors did. When they start learning about their ancestors and truly caring about who they were, where and how they lived, it naturally follows that they'd want to know what hardships their ancestors endured. That is history - family history.

To find the answers to these questions and the many other questions that will arise, students will use numerous researching skills. They will:
* learn how to search records; i.e. birth, marriage, death, land, wills, burial, probate, court cases, war records, and others.
plot out and research the area in which their ancestors lived.
* locate where their ancestors are buried.
* learn how to do cemetery stone rubbings.
* learn how to research cemeteries and document their findings.
* learn how to compose letters requesting information from relatives and from governmental agencies.
* learn how to research the newspaper morgue is search of old articles.
* visit the genealogical libraries to record the research previously done by others.
* access websites dedicated to researching family trees.
* learn how to interview relatives listening intently, as new information will prompt more and deeper questions.
* locate and scan pictures of ancestors that will resemble now-living relatives.
* ...and more researching techniques.

To carry the research further, students can investigate the conditions [physical and political] at the

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