Quote Originally Posted by cajunscot View Post
I beg your pardon; as someone who teaches "in the books history", and used to work in a museum, I take exception at your comments, sir. Good history is a well-told story, and we tried our best to make history come alive with the aid of our resources.

T.
Todd, I agree with you completely -- good history is a well-told story. One of the best tellers of history I actually stumbled across only by accident. It was at the Japanese underground naval HQ built into the hills of Okinawa, and an active serviceman (with the U.S. Marines) was taking some people through the museum and doing an amazing job explaining and recounting some of the things that happened during the war. He looked like he was only about a quarter my age, but yet knew more about those historical events and dates better than I could ever hope.

By the same token though, neither would I take exception to Chirs's comments. I would say he represents the thousands of people who probably had a very negative experience with history books and museums. They may not have had high school history teachers who were so on fire about their favourite subject that they brought every date, event, and battle to vivid life in their classrooms. I did! And for that I am grateful and count myself lucky.

Many people have an automatic "shut-off switch" when it comes to certain topics... For my wife that's mathematics. For many it's history. They have a hard time getting over the negative feelings they may have felt during their formative years and rather than taking offense, why not try to change their minds?