A lot has been said about the importance of history in modern school education and now it is my turn to give my 2 cents to the matter. Firstly our history is indeed a part of who we are. It is entirely true that we are probably very different from the generations before us and certainly the situations of the modern world are different from anything that has come before. But a war is after all still a war. People die, societies are destroyed and in the end there are no true winners, only survivors. There are really only a few subjective technicalities like the power of our weapons and the size of our armies that distinguish modern warfare from that of the past. That being taken into account there can be little doubt that the past does teach us something. If nothing else it teaches us about the mistakes we made in the past and then it’s up to us to see how best we can avoid repeating them.
And if we do prove to be totally incapable of learning from the past (as we have often proved) there’s still the possibility that through learning about other cultures of the past, we might hope to learn about the varied cultures of our present and maybe someday we might actually understand, accept and respect them for their differences.
I know that I sound awfully pessimistic and idealist at the same time, but isn’t that what history is about? Isn’t history about ideals and ideas and beliefs that drove people to defeat all pessimism and do what they thought was necessary, if not always right. Sure they didn’t succeed all the time. It took us 90 years to finish what the First War of Independence had started, but that’s history for you, with all its ups outnumbered by all its downs. In the end that is probably what history should and does teach us : To listen to ourselves and to stick to our principles and to follow our chosen path through all the dangers, right to their very end. What better a lesson can teenage students learn. We don’t really learn about which king did what and when who killed who and where what battle took place. We probably couldn’t care less about it. We don’t even learn that we were great in the past and may be great again. What we do learn is this: Great things have happened at different times and places in the past and they will invariably happen in the future. All we can do is try and anticipate those future events and maybe try our level best not to repeat ourselves.
After all history repeats itself. Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. Those who fail to learn it correctly are simply doomed.
Points:
Knowledge of the past (especially the mistakes made) may help us anticipate the future.
Gives us an idea of who we are, who we were, who we could be.
Tells us about the different people in the world. Teaches us respect for other cultures (hopefully)
Modern syllabus too expansive.
Students should be given a choice as too what to study
Civics and history should be separated. Civics should be made non-compulsory.
Syllabus focuses on causes and results, rather than the actual events, which makes history uninteresting.
Emphasis given on learning what is in the book rather than independent project-like research, which is more beneficial and interesting.