[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia isn't just a good idea - it's compulsory

[Phil Nash]

Durova wrote:
>> From across The Pond there's a wonderful book that came out in the
>> mid-1990s about how dreadful the teaching of history is at the
>> secondary school level. The gap between high school and
>> undergraduate instruction is greater for history than for any other
>> subject.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies_My_Teacher_Told_Me
>>
>> Wikipedia opens new possibilities for correcting that problem.
>>
>> Over here it went something like this:
>>
>> *When we had our revolution we got help from France.
>>
>> *Then we bought the Louisiana Purchase from France, which doubled
>> the size of our country.  Gee, thanks.
>>
>> *Then we had the War of 1812, which didn't really happen in 1812,
>> and we teamed up with France again.
>>
>> Somewhere in there was 'Let them eat cake', a guillotine, Napoleon,
>> and Waterloo.  But that was all on another continent and
>> unimportant.  As long as we could be buddies with France whenever
>> necessary, everything went fine.
>>
>> -Durova

A much more accurate account of world history can be found at 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1066_and_all_that