6 Ridiculous Myths About the Middle Ages Everyone Believes (contains offensive language)

"People were not often living into their 70s."

Psalms 90: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years..."

Apparently they were making it to 70 with some regularity during Biblical times, if King David is to be believed.

I agree. However, it may inspire some 7th graders to seek further historical data. In that way, I believe such things have a place: stoking the interest of the young in a way that is useful. Middle school history teachers the nation over would do well to take a tack similar to this, without the foul language, because the dry and precise language bores the children and causes them to shy away from what is a truly fascinating study. The dry stuff can be introduced for more exact understanding when they have gotten a taste for the knowledge, say, in their freshman year of high school or so. Use the tool for what it is worth, I say. Just a mind-whetter.

Thank you. I can’t believe how people forget that the Roman Empire went on a thousand years after Rome fell in Byzantium. It was basically Europe’s bulwark against the Muslims as well as their cultural lifeline at least till the Holy Roman Empire got humming again and the Carolingian renaissance began.

History can be exciting even without vulgar profanity and discussion of genitalia. That was a huge turn-off and I feel sorry for people who need that to make a discussion remotely interesting.

History as taught in schools is dreadful and the books are horribly tedious. I hated it. As an adult, I began reading history books dedicated to a single topic and biographies which bring history alive. The problem is such grand books would be hard to incorporate into a general HS history curriculum.

I also think it takes a few decades of life to begin thinking about people who lived in the past as real people with real human thoughts and emotions. For most teenagers, the only time that exists is NOW...there is no past other than what you experienced with your family, church, school or sports. It’s like dogs...as soon as something is out of sight, it simply ceases to exist.

I see lately that people are trying to create entirely new approaches to history and teaching of Western Civilization that may have some success — kind of like a Khan Academy for Freedom and Liberty. I hope these succeed.

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