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Learning History/Civics
Apr. 28th, 2025 04:35 pmSiderea posted last week asking how people learned the basics of the Constitution/U.S. Government and at what age. I followed up with an email.
Now I went to 5th grade, for the second time, at a Catholic School in Arlington. We weren't Catholic, so my folks asked if Sis and I could be excused from those classes. I was allowed to go the library, and I found a series of biographies aimed at 8-12 year olds. I could read one in an hour and a half. As I got older, I realized they were mostly fiction, but based around typical things a child-teenager would do in that time frame, for their gender, for their economic status. Some things were reasonably accurate to the person, especially if they'd written an autobiography, but it was mostly best guess fiction to get kids interested in history.
Being me, I looked on Amazon to see if the series was still printed. It is. Some of the ones I read are no longer for sale except as antiques (one was going for $139), mostly the ones around the Confederacy. Many new ones have been written. There are two that I'm not certain if I read them: Jim Thorpe and Helen Keller. I know I read something about Jim Thorpe before I was in 7th grade, but I'm not certain it was this series. I know I read The Story of My Life by Helen Keller in either 5th or 6th grade, but I'm uncertain if the reason I read it was because I'd read the Childhood of Famous Americans book about her first.
I've marked people of color with an asterisk. There are more men than women, but the range of women was pretty wide.
When possible, my parents would reinforce something I'd read. For instance, they took me to see Clara Barton's house just outside of DC. Our trip to Philadelphia when I was 11-ish may have been because I'd read about so many of the participants of the Second Continental Congress.
Most of the Confederate ones seem to have quietly fallen off the modern list (Thank $deity). But there's still Robert E. Lee.
( “List” )
Now I went to 5th grade, for the second time, at a Catholic School in Arlington. We weren't Catholic, so my folks asked if Sis and I could be excused from those classes. I was allowed to go the library, and I found a series of biographies aimed at 8-12 year olds. I could read one in an hour and a half. As I got older, I realized they were mostly fiction, but based around typical things a child-teenager would do in that time frame, for their gender, for their economic status. Some things were reasonably accurate to the person, especially if they'd written an autobiography, but it was mostly best guess fiction to get kids interested in history.
Being me, I looked on Amazon to see if the series was still printed. It is. Some of the ones I read are no longer for sale except as antiques (one was going for $139), mostly the ones around the Confederacy. Many new ones have been written. There are two that I'm not certain if I read them: Jim Thorpe and Helen Keller. I know I read something about Jim Thorpe before I was in 7th grade, but I'm not certain it was this series. I know I read The Story of My Life by Helen Keller in either 5th or 6th grade, but I'm uncertain if the reason I read it was because I'd read the Childhood of Famous Americans book about her first.
I've marked people of color with an asterisk. There are more men than women, but the range of women was pretty wide.
When possible, my parents would reinforce something I'd read. For instance, they took me to see Clara Barton's house just outside of DC. Our trip to Philadelphia when I was 11-ish may have been because I'd read about so many of the participants of the Second Continental Congress.
Most of the Confederate ones seem to have quietly fallen off the modern list (Thank $deity). But there's still Robert E. Lee.
( “List” )
