Learning without retaining

I don't know if I have ever blogged about this topic before but it has recently started really bothering me. As I teach the kids(I'm talking mostly about history) it feels like there just isn't any glue to make it stick, you know? Why do we do this? Why do we read story after story about our history without laying the glue down first? It doesn't make since. There is a solution, I will find it! I am thinking about coming up with a new way of teaching history-one with glue.LOL