ABSTRACT
American history is the least-liked subject in high school. Research shows that it is also the most dependent on textbooks. The latter is an astounding fact. Surely plane geometry, say, offers less opportunity to use books from the library, interview members of the community, or explore on the Internet. Many high school history teachers don’t know much history: a national survey of 257 teachers in 1990 revealed that 13 percent had never had a single college history course, and only 40 percent had a B.A. or M.A. in history or had a major with “some history” in it. Unprepared teachers are not likely to encourage students to go beyond the textbook, because the textbook is all the history they know. According to educational researcher Seymour B. Sarason, teachers rarely say “I don’t know” in class and rarely discuss how one would then find out. “I don’t know” violates a norm. The teacher, like the textbook, is supposed to know. Teachers can end up afraid not to be in control of the answer, afraid of losing their authority over the class. To avoid exposing gaps in their knowledge, too many teachers hide behind the textbooks, allowing their students to make “very little use of the school’s extensive resources,” according to Linda McNeil, who completed three studies of high school social studies classes between 1975 and 1981. 1
