Stuff That Should Really Be Taught

(In 1605), Captain George Weymouth kidnapped five Indians from an island near what it now Port Clyde, Maine, and brought them back to England. They were treated well and when eventually repatriated, they had nothing but good to say of the English. One of the, Tasquantum, or Squanto, taught some English to a friend of his, Samoset, who happened to be in the neighborhood of present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, when the Mayflower dropped anchor in December 1620. When its pilgrim passengers went ashore, they were met by Samoset who flabbergasted them by saying "Welcome" and asking if they had any beer.

(Peter Nichols, Evolution's Captain, Harper collins, 2003, p. 66 (Emphasis mine).

Grade school history would have been so much more interesting had more factual gems like that been included.