Without a collective memory,
"society would be as rootless and adrift as an individual with amnesia." - Furay
"You Americans are so gullible. No, you won't accept Communism outright; but we'll keep feeding you small doses of Socialism until you will finally wake up and find that you already have Communism. We won't have to fight you; we'll so weaken your economy, until you fall like overripe fruit into our hands." --- Nikita Khrushchev 1959
Why study history? This question is frequently asked by students. It’s a good
question. Most students, some parents and sadly some educators don’t’ see
the value of this discipline. I hear the question “How will this help them get a
job?”It may not help with employment but I believe history is the most
important subject in school. I hope students and parents alike will allow some
time for the answer.
Why History?....
To LEARN PATRIOTISM -In order to appreciate the vast amount of freedom and opportunity that we have in our country.
There is far more that is right with our country than what is wrong. We need to appreciate that fact; especially in light of the lack of freedom, both political and economic that is offered by other countries in the world today and in the past.
We also need to work to bring about the ideals put forth in our Declaration and Constitution. We gain appreciation and motivation by studying history. Studying History is our responsibility if we are to continue to grow and to enjoy our freedoms. Responsibility is the other side of the coin of freedom!
History supports common cultural understanding and dialogue.Jefferson's hope that historical knowledge gained in school would improve the decision-making capacity of free citizens in a democracy supposes that all citizens would be similarly informed and share a common basis for evaluating and debating the issues of the day. Robert J. Marzano terms this the "heritage model of schooling, which holds that it is the duty of the education community to help society maintain a common culture by passing on specific information to students." A Nation at Risk, the 1983 report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, put the matter this way: "A high level of shared education is essential to a free, democratic society and to the fostering of a common culture, especially in a country that prides itself on pluralism and individual freedom." E.D. Hirsch, Jr. and his colleagues made an attempt to identify such shared knowledge in their 1993 Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.
Clearly, literacy depends not only on the coding and decoding skills of writing andreading, but equally on the possession of sufficient shared knowledge to give words and ideas meaning. According to Hirsch, "A citizenry cannot read and understand newspapers, much less participate effectively in a modern economy, without sharing the common intellectual capital that makes understanding and communication possible." These thoughts echo the words of eminent historian Jaques Barzun who wrote, "The need for a body of common knowledge and common reference does not disappear when a society is largely pluralistic, as ours has become. On the contrary, it grows more necessary so that people of different origins and occupation may quickly find common ground and, as we say, speak a common language...it also ensures a kind of mutual confidence and good will. One is not addressing an alien, blank as a stone wall, but a responsive creature whose mind is filled with the same images, memories, and vocabulary as oneself."
History Provides Identity Closely associated with the idea of shared cultural understanding is the concept of identity. Questions of identify are a central concern of psychology which has found that loss of identity results in loss of significance; without identity there is little meaning and purpose to life. Beverly Southgate argues that history - the memories of things past - is of "supreme importance" in maintaining a sense of identity. In this context Southgate quotes a character from a Saul Bellow novel who says, "Everyone needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door."
In 1931, historian Carl Becker said that "Everyman...reaches out into the distant country of the past" to inform his present and his future. "Without this historical knowledge, this memory of things said and done, his today would be aimless and his tomorrow without significance." Southgate says the need for identity applies to nations as well as to individuals; cultural identity contributes to meaning, purpose and cohesion in society. Furay and Salevouris think of history as "society's collective memory. Without that collective memory," they say, "society would be as rootless and adrift as an individual with amnesia." They quote philosopher George Santayana who wrote, "A country without a memory is a country of madmen”
History shows us what it means to be human.Some of history's greatest historians have seen human self-awareness as the very essence of history. Arnold Toynbee said, "History is a search for light on the nature and destiny of man." R.G. Collingwood wrote, "History is for human self-knowledge...the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is." Who better than Alexander the Great to teach us that human nature encompasses the entire range from cruelty to benevolence?
Psychologist Bruno Bettleheim asserted that human self-knowledge is the most important role of education."Most of all, our schools ought to teach the true nature of man, teach about his troubles with himself, his inner turmoils and about his difficulties in living with others. They should teach the prevalence and the power of both man's social and asocial tendencies, and how the one can domesticate the other, without destroying his independence or self-love." These words of Bettleheim, Toynbee and Collingwood were cited in Mark M. Krug's instructive 1967 book on history and the social sciences in whichKrug himself wrote, "A historian is interested in the past because he is interested in life. The true historian's interest in the past...answers a deeply felt need to assure the continuity of human life and discoverits meaning, even if the goal is never fully realized."
History Contributes to Moral Understanding History also provides a terrain for moral contemplation. Studying the stories of individuals and situations in the past allows a student of history to test his or her own moral sense, to hone it against some of the real complexities individuals have faced in difficult settings. People who have weathered adversity not just in some work of fiction, but in real, historical circumstances can provide inspiration. "History teaching by example" is one phrase that describes this use of a study of the past—a study not only of certifiable heroes, the great men and women of history who successfully worked through moral dilemmas, but also of moreordinary people who provide lessons in courage, diligence, or constructive protest
Aesthetics History well told is beautiful. Many of the historians who most appeal to the general reading public know the importance of dramatic and skillful writing—as well as of accuracy. Biography and military history appeal in part because of the tales they contain. History as art and entertainment serves a real purpose, on aesthetic grounds but also on the level of human understanding. Stories well done are stories that reveal how people and societies have actually functioned, and they prompt thoughts about the human experience in other times and places. The same aesthetic and humanistic goals inspire people to immerse themselves in efforts to reconstruct quite remote pasts, far removed from immediate, present-day utility. Exploring what historians sometimes call the "pastness of the past"—the ways people in distant ages constructed their lives—involves a sense of beauty and excitement, and ultimately another perspective on human life and society
History provides instructive examples. The use of historical examples is ancient and no doubt predates written language. We can imagine cave dwellers sitting around the evening campfire sharing stories of admired ancestors worthy of emulation. Neitzche said people need models, and historical examples are especially powerful models because they actually existed. Joan of Arc demonstrates the power of individual belief and action. Galileo symbolizes the fight against authority for freedom of thought. Thomas Becket and Thomas More represent integrity in the face of deadly intimidation. Horatio Nelson exemplifies qualities of courage and duty. Hitler personifies evil. While it is not the province of American educators to tell students what their values should be, students can - by judging the actions of historical figures to be admirable or malevolent - advance the construction of their own moral belief systems
As we know, humans are pattern makers. While many philosophers of history have believed that history is revealed only through its unique events, others have been unable to resist the urge to ascribe pattern to history. Two of the more useful of these patterns were developed by Georg Friedrich Hegel and Oswald Spengler, both of whom saw history as a dynamic process of change. Hegel's famous dialectic proposes that history inexorably moves toward greater freedom through a process of conflict between opposite ideas, such as capitalism versus communism (Marx's favorite). This conflict results in a synthesis combining the best elements of the two original ideas (welfare state capitalism
What Skills Does a Student of History Develop?What does a well-trained student of history, schooled to work on past materials and on case studies in social change, learn how to do? The list is manageable, but it contains several overlapping categories. The Ability to Assess Evidence. The study of history builds experience in dealing with and assessing various kinds of evidence—the sorts of evidence historians use in shaping the most accurate pictures of the past that they can. Learning how to interpret the statements of past political leaders—one kind of evidence—helps form the capacity to distinguish between the objective and the self-serving among statements made by present-day political leaders. Learning how to combine different kinds of evidence—public statements, private records, numerical data, visual materials—develops the ability to make coherent arguments based on a variety of data. This skill can also be applied to information encountered in everyday life.
The Ability to Assess Conflicting Interpretations. Learning history means gaining some skill in sorting through diverse, often conflicting interpretations. Understanding how societies work—the central goal of historical study—is inherently imprecise, and the same certainly holds true for understanding what is going on in the present day. Learning how to identify and evaluate conflicting interpretations is an essential citizenship skill for which history, as an often-contested laboratory of human experience, provides training. This is one area in which the full benefits of historical study sometimes clash with the narrower uses of the past to construct identity. Experience in examining past situations provides a constructively critical sense that can be applied to partisan claims about the glories of national or group identity. The study of history in no sense undermines loyalty or commitment, but it does teach the need for assessing arguments, and it provides opportunities to engage in debate and achieve perspective
Heros and villains --examples of what we can be!
“. . . Select from their actions all that is noblest and worthiest to know. Ah, and what greater pleasure could one have? Or what more effective means to one’s moral improvement?” Plutarch (c.46-120 A.D.) The Lives of the Noble Grecians. . . ---Timoleon
“In the writings of the Ephesians there was this precept, constantly to think of some one of the men of former times who practiced virtue.”
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 A.D.) Meditations, Book 12
“My method, on the contrary, is by the study of History, and by the familiarity acquired in writing, to habituate my memory to receive and retain images of the best and worthiest characters, I thus am enabled to free myself from any ignoble, base, or vicious impressions, contracted from contagion of ill company that I may be unavoidably engaged in, by the remedy of turning my thoughts in a happy and calm temper to view these noble examples.”
Plutarch (c. 46-120 A.D.) The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans --- Timoleon
“. . . it seems to be likely enough that we shall be all the more zealous and more emulous to read, observe, and imitate the better lives . . . .”
Plutarch (c. 46-120 A.D.) The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans --- Demetrius
“So that it becomes a man’s duty to pursue and make after the best and choicest of everything, that he may not only employ his contemplation, but may also be improved by it.”
Plutarch (c. 46-120 A.D.) The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans --- Pericles
“This I regard as History’s highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.”
Tacitus (c. 55-117 A.D.) The Annals, Book 3
