What happened to history in schools?

Today, I want to talk about the education of history in our schools. You might be wondering "why history and not economics or geography?". Well, let's just say that what goes around comes around.

images from tales by moonlight

It's about a "going back to the drawing board" attitude that needs to be cultivated. It's about learning from previous epidemics, droughts or famines. It's about learning from previous mistakes. Yes, I know that the current youth have learned all about fixing and improving on previous mistakes but the main thing here is applying that skill over a long period of time. Even though we are coming up with the latest technologies that are breaking barriers and pushing the limits of existence, we're still pretty much stuck when it comes to governance. Even the so-called young senators that we have had are having their own troubles when it comes to leadership.

lt's like taking a test. If you did not know the question during the midterms, did not review it after and then encounter the question during the finals. At that moment, you would feel very irritated. It's like that with governance. One part of the government that employs this strategy is the constitution. The constitution is basically a set of rules that are made to protect or prevent citizens or government bodies from violating rights, duties or obligations. Sometimes these laws are brainstormed, most times they are an improvement or amendment to a previous one which might have been ineffective. We change it when it does not work or we amend it when they are only parts that are faulty. That is why we have had many constitutions, what I call the evolution of constitution.

Now when youth are not educated on how principles such as these work, you are essentially giving them a blank slate (the country ) to work on. They have little previous knowledge apart from they've read for their common entrance exam or civic studies in school and then they make the same mistakes as their predecessors. Sometimes, it's not of their own doings but as a result of their lack of knowledge. History can not only teach us what nationalism and patriotism looked like but how we can achieve it in our society by avoiding common stumbling blocks like corruption. History can not only teach us how to make our votes count but how to end our seemingly endless political cycles of corruption.

In most schools, history is not a compulsory subject, it's only an elective in senior secondary school when students start to feel that they are doing the teacher a favor by taking a subject that is so fundamental. Most times, the students do not even take it in the certificate exams because it's not important enough. When a subject such as this is underrated, how do we expect to be taken seriously among the older generations who always say things like, "The elders are talking", "When I was young" or "Were you born then?" We are often shut out because they feel we do not know enough to contribute especially with our lacking history education. Sometimes it becomes a matter of pride for the older generation who feel that the youth will just trample upon old values, cultural ties and knowledge because of our zeal for the Western world. One proverb that I commonly hear says, "What the elder can see sitting down can not be seen by a youth even if they climb a tree." We all know that this talks about the experiences of the older generation. So do we just sit back and allow only half the population to make decisions that affect us? Would that not lead to conflict of interest, slow or one-sided progress, and underrepresentation? Why should half the population be left to policy innovation, brainstorming and implementing new representative laws? What happens in the next 20 years when they all retire? Will we start all over and make our mistakes all over again or will we neglect the idea of governance overall?

Our elders need to be reassured that respect is not only gained from knowing more but from what we achieve through this knowledge. If they choose to hoard power, it will only come back to affect us due to the mistakes that the youth will make. Having discussions that include all age ranges is never disrespectful. It becomes so when one person tries to impose his or her own knowledge on others or completely disregards the diversity of knowledge present. History does not mean the child sees as far as the adult but gives him a greater understanding of the elder's perspective so that more even more respect is awarded the elder who has lived in two seemingly polarized centuries. History gives the youth enough knowledge to make rational and well-informed decisions that represent everybody (both young and old).

We need to advocate for the reintroduction of history into elementary and junior secondary schools as core subjects so that when the next generation comes they will be able to make thoughtful decisions. This does not mean that the present generation is lost, far from it. We can still educate ourselves by listening and learning from the older generation, watching and reading history documentaries and books. The orientation of the youth always matters and if we feel like we can't do anything, then we won't. And the older people need not worry about feeling left out, many twenty something-year-olds will still need their advice on everything. If you think about it, history always repeats itself so we have to be ready for it. It's not only math and science that are important for survival, history is too. If we are going to build a future, we need to learn from the past, to understand the present and shape the future. And we need everybody to that.

Thanks for reading everyone.

I hope you somewhat enjoyed this post. Remember to drop your comments down below. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Have a nice day!