From all over the country come stories of youngsters who, newly aware of their communities' architectural and cultural heritage, fight to save favorite houses, structures and landscapes.

But how much can we count on schools helping kids to become involved---or even aware? To many observers the answer is not very much---but not necessarily because kids and teachers lack interest or commitment. Most children just don't get the chance to participate.

"The great majority of children in schools today have never even been on a field trip," says Kathleen Hunter, the National Trust's education consultant. For many reasons, among them widespread dislike of field trips by administrators and perceived liability problems, most city kids can't event take a walk around the block with their teacher.

For Hunter the field-trip problem is only a symptom of a much larger issue---curricula that fail to recognize the importance of the built environment in children's lives. "There are wonderful heritage programs going on out there," she says, "but they are the exception rather than the rule."

"If we believe in heritage education---and I believe that actively involving youngsters with their heritage is a better way to teach---then we must get it integrated into the regular curriculum."

For Frances Haley, executive director of the National Council for Social Studies, better teacher training is also at issue. "Heritage education skills, like oral history and working with primary resources, are still not offered in many training programs," says Haley. "This will have to change before we see significant changes in social studies teaching." Meanwhile it's flexible, committed teachers who are taking up the slack.

School heritage projects around the country are wonderfully varied, but they almost always begin with the same objective---awakening visual literacy.

San Francisco architect Marty Gordon, who developed the teacher's guide for Heritage Hikes, a program of the Foundation for San Francisco's Architectural Heritage, speaks for most teachers when she sets out her objectives. "I want to make children visually aware of their surroundings and help them see the value of older buildings as documents of history."

Heritage Hikes are becoming very much a part of San Francisco public school curriculum. Every Tuesday is Heritage Hike day for hundreds of teachers trained in the program. On one particular Tuesday about 30 fifth graders, thrilled to be out in the city, laughingly trudge up one of San Francisco's steep hills to Lafayette Park, toting clipboards, treasure-hunt maps and skethcing materials. And then---there they are! The children point in all directions, shouting with delight. They know each of the Gough Street Victorian houses before them from the slide show in their classroom last week.

That's often the way it all begins---with a walk. Buildings that were nameless and unseen yesterday today reflect magic in young eyes.

But its unlikely that field trip opportunities will soon change for the better, so what about all the kids who can't go out? Some privately developed curriculum programs, like Street Smart, enable kids to participate in the whole environmental problem solving process---awareness, observation, information gathering, analysis, selection of alternatives and action---in the classroom. It doesn't replace field work but it is almost as good.

Teachers welcome all the help they can get. Architectural historian Betsy Woodman, who has seen her program in architecture and restoration of Newburyport, Mass., take root in the fourth grade, has a suggestion for professionals who would work in schools.

"It just can't be just a onetime thing, a slide show or a lecture," she says. "Work with the teachers, help them develop their own curriculum, be available as a resource when they have questions, and the program will continue after you."

Heritage education in its larger context---the child's search for self, family and community---is for all our children.

The essential element in heritage education---as in any innovative program---is the teacher. It is with an individual teacher that these activities begin, and it is the teacher who sustains them---with help. Preservation professionals, working with school boards, curriculum committees, administrators and teachers, not only guarantee the continued success of established programs but also ensure that more and more American children enjoy the gift of their heritage.

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Excerpted from the article "What Schools Don't Teach", Historic Preservation, September/October 1988. The author, David Weitzman, is a writer, illustrator, photographer, former teacher and educational consultant. His books include My Backyard History Book, Underfoot, and Windmills, Bridges and Old Machines.