challenge of applying ideas from the past to their own lives. They may resist
changes in the curriculum, especially if these involve more work or work less
clearly structured than simply “doing the terms.” After years of rote education,
students can become habituated to it and inexperienced and ineffectual at any
other kind of learning.^26
In the long run, however, “learning” history this way is not really satisfying.
Most history textbooks and many high school history teachers give students no
reason to love or appreciate the subject. The abysmal ratings that students give
to their history courses provide a warning flag,^27 and we cannot respond
merely by exhorting students to like history more. But all this does not mean the
sorry state of learning in most history classrooms cannot be changed. Students
will start learning history when they see the point of doing so, when it seems
interesting and important to them, and when they believe history might relate to
their lives and futures. Students will start finding history interesting when their
teachers and textbooks stop lying to them.