ABSTRACT

In the past decade or so, the primary document (eyewitness account, letter, diary, or similar document) has been recognized as an excellent means of generating a new enthusiasm for studies among younger students. High school history classes, in particular, gained a reputation for being dull and irrelevant to students’ lives, but teachers found that primary resources can be used to bring social studies to life. By reading accounts of participants caught up in historical events, students begin to see people of the past as human beings with motives and feelings much like their own. With original documents, history is personalized.