Discusses the development of a child's view of history to show that certain childhood attitudes, though later hidden, remain with people and influence their approach to history. (GT)

Interviews with fourth graders who had not yet received systematic instruction in U.S. history revealed that these students are interested in the past, concerned about human intentionality and cause-effect relationships, and able to construct coherent narrative accounts of historical events as they understand them. However, they lack an…