Wouldn't it be more beneficial and interesting for high school students to focus on studying current events rather than emphasizing historic events? Adults would be more impressed if teenagers could name world leaders and conflicts of 1999 instead of what happened in previous centuries.

Learning more about the events of today that will be history tomorrow would give young people a better understanding of the United States as it currently is and how it interacts with other countries in the world. Issues that would be useful to study and discuss are the impeachment of President Clinton, the problems with Iraq, fighting in Kosovo and Arab-Israeli peace talks. Studying current events wouldn't be boring because there are new stories every day!

Instead of using textbooks, students could subscribe to news magazines. The newspaper would be a reference and would be cost effective. Watching national news would show how important news stories are broadcast. This could even open up the lines of communication between students and their parents!

Reading about, and discussing, news stories as they occur would help students become more aware of the world! This would enable better understanding of future events, too. History is important, but not taking advantage of the opportunity to teach more about current events is regrettable.