12. Using historical documents as teaching tools
For high schoolers, American history can be taught using the documents of the past, beginning with the Declaration of Independence, the grievances it addressed, and the principles it proclaimed. The Constitutional Convention, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, as well as the subsequent amendments, give a picture of the changes in America over more than two centuries. These include the adoption of direct election of senators by the people, the adoption of an income tax, Prohibition and repeal, suffrage rights, and the equal rights amendment. Presenting the Constitution as the basis for historical curricula offers the means to discuss and study the reasons for each mandated change.
Speeches such as Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Eisenhower’s warning of a military-industrial complex, Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, and Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream, all offer windows into their time. American orators of the past were often long-winded. Daniel Webster once delivered a speech on the Senate floor which ran over 3 and a half hours. Another time he delivered after-dinner remarks for more than five hours. The texts of most of America’s most famous orations are easily found online, usable for creating an idea of the issues facing the country at the corresponding period of history, though for the most part, they offer only one side of the argument.