Why We MUST Study History [View all]

[RBInMaine]

As people involved in politics, we hopefully all know why we must study history. But the levels of historical illiteracy in the general public are staggering, and it bodes badly for our society. Preparing our younger generations for the economy of the future is important, but it must also be about preparing them for life and helping them to achieve more meaningful lives. We need a healthy society too. This is why we must have history, the other liberal arts, and the humanities. Below is my essay on the necessity of history education.


Why We Must Learn History

Native Americans help devastated English pilgrims grow food on American soil. Africans survive the most horrendous conditions imaginable to arrive on our shores in chains. A group of visionary patriots risk hanging for treason as they declare their right to self-government. Captured American soldiers die in the sweltering, rat-infested bellies of British prison ships. Young men from Maine charge down a Gettysburg hill in some of the nastiest fighting of that epic battle. Ragged children toil in dangerous mines and factories. Women are spit-on, kicked, cursed, and jailed, merely for wanting to vote.

It is unsettling that too many know too little about these and other important past events. Noted historian David McCullough speaks of a college student who told him she didn’t realize that the original 13 colonies were all in the east. Recent National Assessment of Educational Progress results show just 12% of U.S. high school seniors scoring proficiently in history. Most, for example, did not know that China was North Korea’s ally in the Korean War or that Brown v. Board of Education is the landmark Supreme Court decision that ended school segregation (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/education/15history.html). We must confront this national crisis of historical illiteracy.

It is said that history isn’t “was” but “is.” It explains why we are what we are today. How can we hope to understand our ideals of rugged individualism and collective responsibility without understanding early American settlement, university land-granting, or the suffering of the Great Depression? We can’t understand our economic system and sprawling geography without understanding the Industrial Revolution, Westward Expansion, and Manifest Destiny. Ignorant of our history, we become a society of incomplete individuals. We must learn the many lessons of the past, and those who have shaped our history stand as role models whose stories compel us to determine how we might shape our own communities, state, and nation.

Academic history learning fosters many important skills. Students read, write, and visualize. They think critically as they interpret primary source documents and artifacts. They apply technology as they produce multi-media presentations, and more.

What can families do? Tell old family stories. Do genealogy projects using old family photographs, letters, and other primary source items. Interview and video elderly relatives as they relate their own histories. Read quality historical fiction, biographies, and the histories of personal interests such as art, music, cars, or sports. Visit museums and attractions which bring history to life. There are countless possibilities.

Above all, we must all agree that learning our history is essential and that we are all “natural historians” who love to reminisce on our pasts and make greater meaning of our present lives through this reflection. Once people get a taste, they yearn for more. We need our history, and it needs us. We must respect the past. We owe it to ourselves, to our children, and, most of all, to those who did so much, sacrificed so much, and left so much for us. We just can’t fail them.