h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I agree about the relevance of knowing the order & contemporaneity of theories etc, but I would hate students to lose marks for being a year or two out, or even a decade, on specific dates.

Strangely I feel that learning dates is sometimes also at odds with history lessons. I hated the tedium of pages of dates & accompanying events to be absorbed & regurgitated for history exams, rather than understanding how one event led to another & why events happened in a broader time frame.

(Shh!!! You were warned not to read my post!)

The whole names and dates thing is only a small part of the relevance of history - whether it's world events history, science history, music history, etc - but a very necessary part of it.

Unfortunately for most people, learning the impact of a particular evnt is generally easier than memorizing the names and dates involved. I always found it a little easier to learn names and dates if I could attach them to the impact of the event.

I have to agree that merely learning the names and dates of a particular event is mind numbing though.