This past Sunday night, as happens once in a blue moon, I awoke during the night unable to get back to sleep.

As I lay there, looking out a nearby window, I began to think of a number of articles I have written, and of possible follow-up stories.

A little later, sleep still a few moments away, I began to think of some of the responses my writing has provoked, and in particular a letter from a local resident who said my editorials about downtown revitalization were laudable but also a case of "beating a dead horse."

My eyelids once again growing heavy, I began to think hard about something I often pondered at a far more decent hour -- how do you put that indefinable, but very tangible something back into main street.

How do you make people feel the way they once did about their small part of the universe. For months, no, years, I've been writing about physical improvements that can be or should be made, philosophical roads that civic leaders and public officials can travel down, and yet, time and again I've been told "you can't have those downtowns again."

"But why?" I'd think to myself later.

Finally I concluded that the most difficult to try to rejuvenate is that special feeling, that sense of place that our local main streets once represented.

It wasn't until the other night, restless and unable to sleep, that I took another step forward in that thinking.

What if, in the course of social studies instruction in our local elementary schools, we began to teach local history -- I mean, real local history to our kids.

Back when I was in the seventh grade, we did a whole year on New York State history. In my view, that year has always been a year well-spent.

But what if we took that approach a step further. What if, in the course of social studies instruction, we included even a few days or weeks on the communities our school districts serve.

For instance, in the Elmont School district, teach kids a bit about Elmont; in Floral Park, recall the historical highlights and personalities of Floral Park.

Our schools have always served as the great socializer in American life. But perhaps it's time that they become even more of a vehicle for building a sense of place right here at home.

It's high time our public schools, funded by taxpayer dollars and fine in many respects, take a further step to help imbue our young people with sense of ownership of their community they won't find in any mall.