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Importance of good knowledge of history
The significance of learning history
Why knowledge of history is important
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Recommended: Importance of good knowledge of history
It seems these days that our world's history is becoming more and more misconstrued and misused. Everywhere you look or read about history, someone has made a massive blunder. Facts become fiction and fiction fact. And it's always done so to someone or some group's benefit.
Take the history of slavery, for example. This always controversial subject has been a key element in the history of our United States of America for many generations, and will be for many more. But the truth, rather the complete truth is not taught in school. Why? Because if it was there are certain groups of people that would be outraged. This is not a racist or prejudiced view, but people who seem to believe that others should be held accountable for what their ancestors did to the others' ancestors will always hold a controlling voice in what is taught in history.
Where did this point come from? Simple: as we all know, native Africans were sold into slavery during American colonial times. That has never been disputed. What is not taught, however, is who sold them into slavery. And why is that? Because if it were taught, that controlling minority would lose it's control, not just over history, but politics, education and more.
And what's more about slavery is that it wasn't only Africans who were sold into slavery during the course of mankind, but also Jews, Arabs, Irish, Scottish, English, Germans... The list goes on. In fact, every major ethnicity or nationality has had members of it's ancestry enslaved at some point in time. It's nothing that hasn't been performed for eons. But why do we concentrate so hard on the slavery of Africans? Because we have to.
Another problem with history as it is taught is religious persecution. Christianity for many centuries has complained that it is persecuted constantly throughout history. Yes, that's true, but Christianity fails to point out that it itself is one of the worst religions when it comes to persecuting other religions. The Crusades are a prime example of persecution performed by Christianity. No religion is exempt from having been persecuted or having performed persecution. But we're not allowed to know that.
The Jewish religion is another example. Always one of the most fiercest anti-Christian religions, Judaism is known for being persecuted. Although true enough that their religion has most definitely suffered the worst religious abuse they too participate in the active destruction of other religions.
Setting someone apart for the color of his or her skin is bigotry. The slave owners did not take an attempt to consider the damage they were doing to the African Americans of this time, with the physical,
The larger repercussions of this form of history, is that it misses out on the larger purpose of history. The most important part of history to be told truthfully is the bad part. Imagine our history glazing over Hitler as a crazy guy who acted alone, and forced everybody in Germany to go along with his plan. We need to hear the story that regular people were pulled into his mentality, that random Joe's were converted into Jew-hating murderers.
...ime of the author rather then accurate historical facts. (Lies?293) Textbooks are being written this way and history is being taught this way to show people how they should act and strive to be. This relays to the student what is deemed acceptable to everyone and what is not. When it comes to a student remembering historical lessons they normally do not remember what is being taught to them unless they are moved by it. (Lies?301) So what is the result to a society where our students are being taught this way? The number one result is that students do not know the true history of their country nor do they remember what they were taught in class. This is a sad conclusion but Mr. Loewen feels it is an accurate one given responses to questions he has asked his students throughout the years. What can we do to change this and reeducate the people out there? Sadly I feel nothing can be done for those of us out there who are not truly aware of this misinformed way of teaching. But, our children need not be sheltered from our true history, rather they should learn all that has happened so we can prevent the atrocities from reoccurring again.
...ter researching and reading the stories of the famous African slaves free safely, does not provide comfort for my soul of the African slaves that died before 1865. The African slaves may have died by natural causes or by the hands of the slaves’ owners. However, the stories of Nate Turner, the Black Seminoles, Dred Scott, Polly Berry, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and many other famous and not so famous African slaves gave me a since of pride that I am a descendant of an African slave male and female. Moreover, my African American racial heritage did not sit back and wait for Abraham Lincoln to approve outlaw slavery, but the African slaves knew throughout the entire time from 1619 to 1865 that no white man or woman should be allowed to own another man or woman, no matter where the person is originated from or who that person is born from.
Boles writes on how slavery was indeed something that started in the Ancient world, and also it was not something that was racial motivated instead “as in the ancient system, slaves were usually captives of war…with religion, not race, being the crucial factor.” He notions the fact that “not all blacks were slaves.”
“One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect men and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth.”
The world is living histories. For instance, communities speak the languages that are inherited from the past and, practice cultural and religious traditions that have not been created on the spur of a moment. In this sense, acknowledging history is essential for rooting people in time. Nonetheless, sometimes a dreadful past can inhibit a country to undertake its own history. For example, the United States has long been telling
People are so fascinated by our so called heroes such as Columbus and only decide to look at all the good they have brought onto world. Ignorance is so widely spread because no high school history teacher wants to bring up controversial topics. Just like Columbus people are greedy and only want the gold. Loewen asks “Why don’t textbooks mention arms as a facilitator of exploration and domination?”(37). Like previously mentioned, it is because of fear of controversy. The fear of truth is what keeps our high school and middle school teachers from touching delicate topics such as exploitation, human trafficking, and other organized crime. Loewen basically states that history is written by the winners which are usually European descendants. It wouldn’t make any sense to write history and include our downfalls. Many people portrayed as heroes will be seen as criminals and soulless people. People chose to write the side of the story they want to be told and that the rest is forgotten, but that is what stops society from facing reality. Not knowing everything about our history is a facilitator for people who want to be in power and that is one of the reasons why the white man always wins. It is always a one sided story with no if ands or buts told by the
“History never says goodbye. History says see you later” (Eduardo Galeano). History teaches us valuable lessons from the past, which can be used for the present time, yet our leaders usually overlook these lessons and repeat previous mistakes. I have recently immigrated to the United States and since in my home country history classes are not a place to really discuss the history, I was amazed by the way that this history class challenged every event and fact. I have learned that history is told by bias, so we should be able to think critically and question what we are taught. History is usually written by the dominant group of the society, so if we are looking for the truth, we should study each event from different resources and different
As educators and students, we should be able to trust that the truth about our past is what is being taught to today’s youth. The majority of our youth despises history; history is usually ranked last among the favorite subjects of students. American history textbooks all seem to follow the same storybook technique; therefore, students tend to take a snooze in class rather than learning about what has given them the freedom to sit in a classroom and learn. What if what is being taught in classrooms is not the complete truth, though? James Loewen dove deep into the true history of our past in Lies My Teacher Told Me. James Loewen has studied over eighteen American History textbooks over the years, and he discovered one common theme throughout each of the ...
The purpose of history, to empower society to be able to make educated decisions about the present based on what happened in the past, is lost through the convoluted textbook publication process. What results is material that is historically inaccurate and ineffective in educating society. My 7th grade journal entry is hardly an acceptable method of recounting what happened to the chocolate chip cookie on that summer day, yet this is a tragic reflection of the historical distortion that is present in textbooks that students are studying this very day. Something must be done, or else societal ignorance will be the downfall of intelligent decision making. Something must be done, and we must be the change. Unlike history textbooks make it seem, everyone has the power to make a change. Make an impact on your local education system by getting involved. When election season rolls around make an educated vote for the board of education. Do not settle for ignorance. Something must be changed in corrupt historical education, and it must happen
The lengths that many textbook writers go to keep our history on a positive note, and to make heroes out of many of our historical figures comes at a high cost, according to Loewen. These costs include incorrect history, and boring history. The end results are students who hate history class, and who come out of those classes not equipped to think about our past in a rational or coherent way.
“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” This famous quote from Edmund Burke is one that many of us are familiar with. In spite of this, many people disregard history, branding it as unimportant or irrelevant to modern-day situations. However, history is actually a quite important subject with a myriad of lessons to be learned for anybody to apply now and in the future. Additionally, history gives us much needed information about our past, keeping us from forgetting why our nations became the way they are. It allows us to draw parallels between modern events and past events to collect our best judgment and gives us the important knowledge of the origin of our modern world, giving extra credibility
History is very important for everyone, and everyone should learn about history. Learning History can help to learn about people situation and life from the past. It also helps to know about many events and even some fact from the past. When people want to learn history, they should search about any subject or event from the past and tries to learn the both side of the subject. They also need to try to find what is hidden from that subject, so they can learn more about it. They also need to find out who wrote the subject that they learn about, for not all the historian show the bad side of the event, and they just show the good side. When people know they both side the can have a good judgment about the event. For example, before taking the
When most people think about history they remember a boring class they took in school a long time ago, they recall memorizing important dates, taking map tests, and falling asleep while listening to a lecture. The truth is that history really is an important subject to be teaching students. History is more than just some lecture you receive in class, history lets us look back, see the good things and the bad things, it allows us to learn from our mistakes and prevent such mistakes from happening in the future. Things that happened in the past are still changing things that are happening today. History is needed for everyone, from government leaders down to individuals; everyone has learned one thing or another from history at some point in their life.