History is key

Less than 1/4 of american school children know American History - enough to pass the required tests.

This made me think: 'What is the value of learning history and what are the most important subjects in school'?

It is a well known saying "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it". I think this quote does hold merit and truth. Human beings are naturally doomed to exist in a cyclical series of events if no effort is put forth to seriously change it. I think an example of this is with the political party of the president: it alternates, quite frequently, back and forth between the two major parties; rarely has it ever stayed in the hands of the same party for more than one or two presidents. We go back and forth, between our likes and dislikes and between our highs and lows. This is just the natural progression of human existence, I believe, and if no conscious decision to change this occurs, we will always fall back into the same lows and dislikes.

History. If I were to be a teacher or a professor, I would most certainly desire to teach history and literature. Why? I believe that History is the canvas by which Literature adheres. In my mind, you cannot separate the two and the two, if studied, will bring a whole new meaning to life and the horizons of our existence will illumine all the more.

History is an art. It is not a naive recitation of dates, facts and figures; but a study of human existence and how we have sought the great questions of our times and met the great challenges that threw themselves in our laps. History is the process of coming to know and understand individuals who lived before us and view living through their eyes and minds. We seek to know and understand what motivated them, what inspired them, what scared them, what challenged them, what they loved and how they loved; history is getting to know the people and ideas of teh past in an intimate way. When we know, truly know, more than just dates, we become full participants in this thing we call life and establish ethos for our current state of affairs.

Literature. Literature, to me, seeks to characterize, enunciate, create and make whole our lives. In understanding history, you will much easier and more wholly appreciate the beauty of the art of literature. You will understand how the people thought and what they believed and valued by understanding their literature and art.

The whole of humanity is encompassed in history and literature (and art as a whole). Everything else stems from this. You really cannot even discuss theology without understanding the people and how they thought.

History will enlighten us to have a direction of where we want to go. History creates the environment for discussing great ideas and for writing and reading literature and appreciating art.

History has gotten the shaft in the midst of an incredibly massive and complex educational infrastructure. The more that our youth and our fellow man loses touch with their history, the more rapid the deterioration of our culture will be. As that happens, we are doomed to be caught in a natural cycle of good and bad, high and low, war and peace, and tangled in a web of ignorance and naive assumptions of life.

Those who do not learn history are doomed to hurt by it.