Helping your children with their homework is a part of every parent's job description. It can be frustrating to watch your kid struggle with something as basic as elementary subtraction, but incredibly rewarding when they finally master borrowing ten under your tutelage.

Homework gets harder as students progress through grade levels and, like all parents, I (Steve) realized that the time would come when I would no longer be able to help my daughter Bonnie with her homework. But I didn't expect that moment would first arise in fifth grade U.S. history!

Bonnie's assignment was to match historical figures with descriptions of who they were and why they were important. Several names were well known to her from prior experience, such as Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) [20], George Washington (1732–1799) [6], and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) [5]. Others were new, but clearly worth learning about as she began her study of American history – people such as:

1. • Henry Ford (1863–1947) [148]: automobile industry pioneer.

2. • Robert Fulton (1765–1815) [954]: steamboat inventor.

3. • William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) [735]: abolitionist who fought against slavery.

4. • Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804) [45]: secretary of the Treasury who put the United States on a firm financial footing.

5. • Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) [76]: commander of the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

But Bonnie's homework also contained the names of several people who, frankly, I had never heard of before.