Human beings have always connected past events to their everyday experiences. Many cultures, such as the Greeks and Native Americans, used mythology to explain the conditions in which they lived. Today we still use history to explain what is going on in our lives, but the history is documented, not told through mythic stories. In schools we attempt to teach this history in social studies classes. These should not be referred to as history classes since history is taught no more in these classes than politics, economics, and geography. History does differ from these others because it is taught very differently everywhere. In other words, slavery will be taught differently in South Carolina than it will be in New York. While geography and economics have more potential to be taught in a standard form with less interpretation. History then, is the connection humans make between current situations and their past and is distinctive to each culture. Whether the connection is made through myths and stories or though real documents like the Declaration of Independence, humans use history both as a guide for the future and as a reference to the past. .
Society, in recent years, emphasized the role of schools in teaching children about history. In many societies, before public education, this was responsibility of the elders in the community. Highly respected by the society, it was the elders that shared knowledge of the past with the children. In the past 100 years schoolteachers, more and more, have replaced the role of the elders. Today's teachers not only have the responsibility of presenting history, but, in addition the must incorporate the moral and social lessons that are implied in the teaching of history. By this I mean that teachers have an implicit responsibility to make sure students grasp the moral implications of historical events. For example, when teaching about the slave trade the teacher is expected to teach in such a way as to create a story that, even though it seems obvious, teaches the students that the institution of slavery is wrong.
