History was a special subject for me thanks to my father. His stories were my main source on the world, politics and events that had changed society from 1911 to 1986. He was born in 1911 and had a brother who had served in World War I and another who had served in the Second World War. In my mind, the Story was going to be a lesson in storytelling, but when reality hit I quickly became disillusioned. The textbook was thicker than any I had ever seen, and the content was dry, factual, specific, and devoid of any of the quality of my father's stories. Thankfully, he taught me how to navigate the text and introduced me to microfiche and autobiographies that helped add color to the stark black-and-white perspectives presented in the text. Although the act of cross-referencing the content of the text with primary sources and original accounts was tedious, this process helped fill in the details that had been deleted from the text. With each history class I passed I learned more about the quality of a textbook, the validity of sources, and how perspectives can change from one edition to the next. History is still a subject I deeply enjoy and understand because I was taught how to use a critical eye in evaluating the source and ways to triangulate any proposed theory. However, many students are not fortunate enough to have a living historian in their midst and for them History is a boring subject that could not be further removed from their daily lives. The historians' challenge The materials that a teacher has at his disposal can be used have an enormous impact on the distribution and absorption of content. History by its very nature is broad and deep, making it one of the most complex studies to teach. The materials are a cumulative collection...... middle of paper ......oric content in packaging that is more likely to be acceptable and navigable to today's youth. Works Cited Gewertz, C. (2012, December ). History lessons blend content knowledge and literacy. Education Digest, pp. 11-16.MacPhee, D. A., & Whitecotton, E. J. (2011). Bringing the “social” back into social studies: Literacy strategies as tools for understanding history. Social Studies, 102, pp. 263-267.Reynaud, D. (2011). Cover historical films in history and English lessons. Research and Scholarship, 48-52. Scheuerell, S. (2009, March). The Avalon Project: Using literacy strategies with primary sources on the Internet. Social Studies Research and Practice, 4(1), pp. 71-81. Schlepegrell, M. J., Greer, S., & Taylor, S. (2008, June). Literacy in history: language and meaning. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 31, pp. 174-187.