A historic-didactic study is presented that examines aspects of historicalconsciousness among 11-year-old school children who have participated incultural environment education projects. A short description of the projectsand an analysis of the results is followed by a concluding section withreflections on archaeology, and meetings with school children in the course ofcontract archaeological work. The results of the study show that, for thestudents, the past is not about then, it is about now. It is claimed that thisdemands a shift in focus for public archaeology within cultural environmenteducation projects: from stories about the past told in the present to storiesabout the present referring to the past.