At the beginning of the semester I said that history is “a series of events from the past. It is what has formed the way of life, learning, and functioning in the modern world. We ‘do’ history by continuing to expand our knowledge and continuing the cycle of old and new.”
Now I would say that history is the foundation to how society functions. History teaches us how to think and question things that we cannot have direct answers to. It teaches us to how to properly research and find reliable sources; allowing us to grow from our findings. History is much more than WWII and Hitler; history is where we came from and why we live the way we do, it is why we value certain things and why we have the freedoms we have.
History is what you make it.
It can be memorizing dates, events, and people– or it can be used to understand the ‘how’ and ‘why’ to these dates, events, and people. History is made for questioning and understanding; for digging deeper and finding more. It is made to be impactful.
We grow up learning that history is simply a past that is dead and done, but if you really think about there is a lot that has come from the past. We look to the past and see a lot of negativity: wars, death, arguments, etc. and unfortunately this skews a lot of peoples thinking towards history. History is so much more than dates and people it is the foundation to our society today; it might be a lot of negative outcomes: faults and errors, but this is what we learn from. The world is one big trial and error experiment: we learn from the things that do work, but also learn from the things that do not work. If you put history into that perspective and think about certain topics such as:
World War II. It is no longer simply Hilter and concentration camps; it is why we have freedom from torture, degrading treatment, and slavery– it is why we have freedom to religion and the right to equality.
Government. In grade four when you learn about the government and elections it is not simply liberal, conservative, and knowing all the prime minister’s; it is comparing history to today and realizing how much has changed, what we have learned from it. As well as and trying to figure out why we re-elected a Harper? And why Trump was even in the running… Is there a new within the government? Is media maybe changing politics?
It is realizing that Women’s History is more than the sum of its outstanding players: Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, Sacagawea, Helen Keller, Amelia Earhart, etc. These women enjoy a firm place in society’s collective consciousness, but also made a change that we still are striving to accomplish. It’s looking into what they did and realizing where we went wrong after they were gone because women still haven’t achieved equality and fair treatment. It’s looking into Marilyn Monroe’s goal to be comfortable with your body no matter the size, and figuring out what sparked the ideal to be ‘tall, thin, and toned.’
History is not boring. History gives explanations to the ‘how’ and ‘why’ to our functioning today.
