Teaching military history poses many challenges. Despite the popularity of the History Channel and the Military Channel, many students find campaigns, battles, and strategy confusing or uninteresting. Those same students often willingly engage the sub ject if it can be personalized through individual veterans' stories. Oral history offers students a way to connect directly and intimately with those who actually made the history they study. Oral history is labor intensive and requires a certain amount of discipline and maturity, but it is entirely appropriate for grades 9-12. Many high schools around the country have established successful oral history programs. One fine example of such a program was developed at the D.C. Everest Junior-Senior High School in Weston, Wisconsin. The school's oral history project began in 1997 as a National History Day pro gram and has now grown into an award winning long-term endeavor that has produced several published books. While students interviewed many local veterans, they ultimately expanded their efforts to explore the 1920s, the Great Depression, the 1950s, the 1960s, and local ethnic groups, including the Hmong commu nity established in Wisconsin after the Vietnam War. For more on this project, please visit . An oral history program designed to recapture the personal stories of local veterans does not have to be overly com plicated. It can be as simple as requiring students to meet with veterans to record [M]any students find campaigns, battles, and strategy confusing or uninteresting. Those same students often willingly engage the subject if it can be personalized through indi vidual veterans' stories. Oral history offers students a way to connect di rectly and intimately with those who actually made the history they study.
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