![\"Jack](\"http:\/\/historyweblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Jack-Original-Profile-300x225.jpg\")
This website really began many years ago.<\/p>\nThis website really began many years ago.<\/p>\n
Sometime towards the end of third grade, I got sick. I was going to be confined to my bed for days. Dad moved the TV into my bedroom.<\/p>\n
Did you ever notice that some things in life never vary? For instance, if you turn on the television set and it\u2019s a really good program, then it\u2019s just ending. — Or if it\u2019s bad, then it\u2019s just starting. I think it\u2019s the law.<\/p>\n
Now, if you\u2019re sick, and you have 24 hours to watch, all of the programs will be bad. — Or the good ones will come on when you\u2019re sleeping and end just as you wake up. It\u2019s the law.<\/p>\n
To keep me happy, Dad and Mom went to the library and brought me a bunch of children\u2019s books. One of them was a picture book about Daniel Boone.<\/p>\n
I read it. I couldn\u2019t stop. This was just as good as the TV show (Disney\u2019s Davy Crockett)! I watched the clock. I couldn\u2019t help it. Inevitably, the big hand came to the half hour. I don\u2019t know what I expected. Maybe the book would vanish in a cloud of dust or something. If the TV is showing something really good, it always ends when the big hand reaches the half hour. It\u2019s the law.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the big hand reached the half hour but I decided to cheat. I kept reading. Something would surely happen to make me stop, but until then the story would continue. Nothing happened, a momentous nothing.<\/p>\n
I made two discoveries: (1) there are no time limits on reading and (2) history books are interesting. Reading a history book was as interesting as watching any TV show. And it didn\u2019t end just as you started it, especially if you went to the adult section and got a really thick, big book! As a bonus, I didn\u2019t get into trouble for reading!<\/p>\n
In that first batch of books was \u201cThe World of Captain John Smith\u201d by Genevieve Foster. I asked, \u201cWhat is this?\u201d My mom answered, \u201cHe\u2019s a little like Davy Crockett, isn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all these years later and I can\u2019t forget that book. Foster was a famous children\u2019s author in the forties and fifties. She wrote what she called \u201chorizontal history.\u201d She took a person\u2019s life and then wrote stories from around the world during the time that person lived. The person served as an anchor on which she based a general history of the world during that lifetime.<\/p>\n
Within a short period of time, I had read every one of her books that I could get my hands on. She\u2019s largely forgotten now. Such a shame!<\/p>\n
For all these years I\u2019ve wondered why anybody else didn\u2019t pick up on this approach to writing history. And why was this just for children?<\/p>\n
I was a weird kid. When other children were playing, I read history books \u2013 wondered why everyone else didn\u2019t do what I was doing. I remember in 8th. Grade dreaming of producing a history magazine. I doodled and played at the idea but this was before the internet and mimeograph machines were expensive. Besides, the practical side of me asked why produce something no one would want to read.<\/p>\n
That practical side led me to accounting (which I love by the way) but I still remember back in the day when I thought to producing a magazine.<\/p>\n
So, here we are.<\/p>\n
For my history library, I love making books by old authors accessible (via the excerpts and by chopping them down to easily read bits for busy readers); I love pointing out today\u2019s latest in history; and I love scouting out quotes and humorous stories.<\/p>\n
For my classroom teaching, this site expands on the topics presented in class and fills in gaps between them.<\/p>\n
With today\u2019s technology, I can even add old videos!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This website really began many years ago. Sometime towards the end of third grade, I got sick. I was going to be confined to my bed for days. Dad moved the TV into my bedroom. Did you ever notice that some things in life never vary? For instance, if you turn on the television set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1139,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1141","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyed.site\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyed.site\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyed.site\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyed.site\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyed.site\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1141"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/historyed.site\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2824,"href":"https:\/\/historyed.site\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1141\/revisions\/2824"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyed.site\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyed.site\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}