Place the original Charter of the Colony of Connecticut from 1662 in front of your fifth graders and see what they do. Does the cursive trip them up? Do they struggle with the archaic language? Can they comprehend the circumstances that led to its drafting? Maybe, you think, it is easier to just skip the exercise altogether.
This is just one example of why many teachers and educators shy away from working with primary sources in K-12 (kindergarten through twelfth grade) classrooms. It is difficult and many teachers do not have the time or resources to find and use primary sources—especially for teaching local or state history. Primary sources, however, are critical to building students’ critical thinking and analysis skills—even for those as young as elementary school.1 Familiarizing students with primary sources not only means getting them into the hands of teachers, but also providing the context and resources...
