Only Know Their Internet History

Teacher: “So, how do historians know about the past?”

Class: *various versions of ‘look it up on the internet’*

Teacher: “Yes, but how does the information get on the internet in the first place?”

Class: *confused looks*

Teacher: “People type it in, but where do the people who type it up find out about the past?”

Child #1: “By talking to old people?”

Teacher: “Great! They can definitely talk to old people. But the oldest people are only about a hundred years old, and history goes back for thousands of years. So how can we find out about things older than living people?”

Child #2: “Read a book written in the old days?”

Teacher: “Excellent! We can read books written in the past to find out about life in the past. How else?”

Child #3: “Very old computers?”