2. Focus on American History will generate interest in world history
America’s Founders began the seminal event in American history – the Revolution – as a struggle to protect their rights as Englishmen. Each colony had its own legislature, with elected representatives, to address the issues pertinent to their locale. All of them considered themselves English subjects. In order to understand the causes of the Revolution, the rights of Englishmen, that is, those the colonists deemed violated, require explanation. The Revolution also exposed the differences between the Southern colonies and those of the North, already exceeding the South in manufacturing and trade.
The Revolution and the Constitutional Convention created the form of government and the opening of opportunities in America which made it an attractive refuge for so much of Europe. Irish and people from the German provinces created the first waves of immigration into the new nation. Late in the following century the Italians, and Asians, joined the mass of immigrants who came to America. Presenting the promise of American government, and the opportunities afforded by cheap land, or growing industries, offers an explanation which can be pertinent to a child’s own family background, generating further interest. Older children may delve into the many failures of America to live up to its own stated ideals, and the convulsions in society they caused.