(PHOTO: http://www.old-picture.com)

Dear Tumblr - I need your help!  From what I’ve gathered over my short teaching career, the older I get the more History there is to teach.  And yet, while the amount of history to teach is growing, the amount of time to teach it remains the same.  Clearly, a problem only solved by time travel.  Seriously though, each year I have to make tough choices about what to teach and what not to teach - it is quite impossible to teach it all with depth and clarity.  The problem is that I am one person, with a certain lens through which I view History, bringing my pre-judgments and biases to my curriculum.  In short, I’m trying to unlearn the unwritten rule that says we are to cover everything broadly, and nothing deeply.  Welp, here goes…

I need your help in deciding what matters in American History.  Whether you be a teacher, historian, bum, blogger, plumber, dumb, or none of the above, my humble request is that you join a dialogue about what matters in American History, and what doesn’t.  

So.  I’ve created a new blog called “What Matters?”, and over the next few weeks I’ll be posting over there about how we decide what’s important for American kids to know, and what’s not.  Please take part in that conversation if you are at all interested - even if you just want to weigh in on your own experience as a student, an American, or someone who wants to help change the way we learn History.

Please send a message or just click follow at whatmattersinhistory.tumblr.com if you are equal to the task, or follow the #whatmatters tag if you prefer to watch.  If it’s not for you, please consider reblogging and sharing this with others you know.

Not sure yet?  Read these answers to the questions you have that I already thought of and answered here.