Here's an article that describes the results of a WWII history quiz given to an 11th grade class by the S.F. Chronicle; some of the answers were truly dismal. But there are teachers who are trying to find ways to expand the curriculum. I guarantee none of the students involved in this project will forget anything they learned:
At Palo Alto High, a lightbulb lit for 11th-grade history teacher David Rapaport a few years ago when a student's father handed him a World War II scrapbook he'd found in a dumpster.
"It was amazing," Rapaport said. "It was in perfect condition."
A soldier's wife named Barbara Costello had saved not only letters, telegrams and military orders, but every napkin and receipt remotely related to the service of her husband, William Costello.
Last year, Rapaport asked his students to trace the soldier's life.
The kids spent the year learning about the man, and ended up writing a "A Soldier's Scrapbook," a colorful, 40-page book they published themselves.
It's part World War II history, part love story. A photo of the couple's graves is on the back cover.
"Instead of listening to and reading history, we have uncovered it ourselves," writes Ali Arams, one of the book's 150 authors. "Our class has discovered history like no one else has before."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/02/BA61S87F0.DTL
