ABSTRACT
Common sense and research suggest that as children learn, they gradually expand their abilities to understand and execute ever more complex concepts and processes. Th is understanding informs how children in the United States study math, science, and reading, in a year-by-year sequence that begins in kindergarten. Encountering ever-increasing complexity in these subjects, children meet these challenges because they have incrementally acquired the necessary skills and abilities. In contrast, history is not systematically taught through the elementary levels where the foundation is laid for all ensuing education. Th e research on teaching and learning history does not justify the delay in teaching this subject to children. Instead, it suggests elementary students are capable of learning historical patterns and sequences.2
