Harry Eagar
2007-08-19 14:06:24
Even historians cannot agree what history is. But whatever it is, it isn’t knowing who invented stairs.
However, if your kid wants to know about that, buy her the works of Henry Petroski. There she will learn not only about how things came about (though not stairs), but how we know how they came about. She would love ‘The Pencil.’
Let’s get serious. A fourth-grader is not capable of asking, let alone understanding, a meaningful question about history. History is for grownups.
