I didn’t realize when I was in high school how much my favorite history teacher taught me when I was in her classes for both English History and United States History.

Studying English History was a good way to build a foundation to understand the founding of the United States of America.

However, because of the way she taught, it wasn’t just the actual facts and figures that her students learned. We weren’t told to simply memorize names and dates. We were told to think about what we were learning and the reasons that real people made the choices they did.

We had many class discussions and debates with students taking on the parts of different historical figures. She helped us see them as living, breathing, human beings so we could better understand the consequences of the actions they took.

She assigned research projects without any dictates as to how to go about them, other than to have at least 3 different resources on our research papers so we would see more than one side of any issue. In the pre-internet days, we had to actually visit the library.

I now realize that it is because of those classes I’ve always looked at all sides of a situation and done as much research as possible before making up my mind about important issues.

I wish everyone would apply this method before casting a vote in the coming election.

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