After a quarter-century with historical thinking skills at the forefront of the history-teaching agenda, the news from history education is not good. In 2012, for example, the American Historical Association (AHA) observed, "the systematic teaching of history had all but ended in elementary schools across the country." In late 2018, the AHA reported, "Of all the major disciplines, history has seen the steepest declines in the number of bachelor degrees awarded." With the fortunes of history education declining despite the emphasis on historical thinking skills, it might be time to consider a second opinion. Following a seven-year study of contemporary history schooling, author Mike Maxwell concluded that historical thinking skills haven't lived up to their potential due to two limiting factors: (1) useful thinking requires useful knowledge to think about; and (2) historical thinking skills aren't exclusive to history.