Rediscovering the Power of History Education

History education was one of the subjects in school back then that made me run away from being an art student. However, I grew older to really understand the importance of history and regretted neglecting this subject that much those days, now researching on the Internet always and reading current affairs in order to stay updated with information regarding history.

I think the issue with some students like me who didn't find history education interesting then is because of how vast the subject is and how boring some history teachers make it look like. There are stories upon stories to learn, the culture of many tribes and countries, dates to memorize, names of people to memorize, and lots more. If only there is a way to really focus on the most important things students need to know without boring students with cramming dates of thousands of events of the past and the like, I bet that the majority of students will find this subject inspiring. Not that the dates aren't important, but something to make the subject more interesting.

Getting students to be familiar with the past through history education in schools is very vital. The knowledge of history isn't something the school should ignore because it helps us gain insight into the patterns, successes, and mistakes of those before us, which in turn helps us to make an informed decision. Tell me that person who knows the mistake of the past people and still follows the same path. That's one of the important aspects of the knowledge of history, among many others.

Let's narrow it down to the little teachings we received from our parents and grandparents. When we apply it in our current lives, minding their mistakes and sticking to the paths that gave them results, life becomes easier. So in many aspects, history is important and should be a subject that is taken seriously in the school curriculum.

I think it will be a great concern about the future if schools ignore history in their curriculum. Take, for instance, the history of the world war. It's knowledge being passed down to our today's generation; what caused it and how the same mistake wouldn't be repeated is what students of today can learn to thrive well in the future. Imagine being ignorant of all that happened those decades ago, which should serve as a guide. Our country also has lots of historical knowledge to embrace. The political structure then and now, who ruled back then, and what made those leaders succeed or ruin the country is vital knowledge, and that's history speaking. Talking of cultural diversities, it makes sense to have knowledge of other people's cultures and what's changing today. These are important knowledges that history education offers us.

I remember reading about the scientific inventions of many heroes in the past; their success and failures, now imagine how this knowledge will give the learners an opportunity to be a critical thinker in analyzing the past work of others and seeking a better way to improve on the existing inventions.

Wrapping up, the knowledge of history remains relevant in our today's society, and instead of nursing the idea of removing this subject from the students curriculum, it would make sense to bring more awareness to our world at large on the need to embrace history education because ignoring history might mean repeating the same mistakes of the past.

This post is in response to the #hivelearners community contest on the topic titled, Is history important?

Image 1 was taken from canva while image 2 was created using meta Ai