History Test

Back when I was in public school, I thought I didn't like history. It wasn't until after I graduated from high school that I realized why. Even today, history is still taught with an overemphasis on war and political struggle, and a heavy euro centric point of view. It can get pretty repulsive at times, to say the least. Sadly, even when it comes to war and public figures, many text books contain gross distortions of actual events (See the book "Lies My Teacher Told me," by James W Loewen). So that's why I was bored and never got very good grades!

Later, I discovered that I really do like history; especially the history of technical innovation, invention, and creativity. I felt sad and angry that the school system (even the "good" one I attended at the time) left me feeling as if it was my fault for not doing better, rather than due to flaws in the curriculum and the teaching methods and materials they chose. How about something that shows a little more variety and interest and positive accomplishments of average people?

To illustrate, I've designed a history quiz with ten questions of my own. You are welcome to give it a try or perhaps have a history teacher in school near you try it. Yes, in some ways, this is just replacing one set of trivial facts to memorize with another. But even with that, the stories behind some of these questions are truly inspiring. And each is easily as relevant to life today as any president or war may have been.

Directions:  Print a copy of the quiz (a PDF file), take it to a history teacher you know, and see how many questions they can answer without looking anything up.  Then, see how many they can answer if they take this quiz "open book" with any current high school history textbook. You can send their papers to me to be graded if you like, or, even better, look up the answers using any convenient computer connected to the internet, using a web browser and search engine. Good luck!

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