Is History Still Important in Modern Times ?
Is their any benefit in teaching, learning or having any knowledge of historical fact nowadays ?
It could fall into two camps:
It’s in the past so no longer important in the world today
or
Yes, all education is valuable
I like to think of myself as a pragmatist, actually I like to think of myself as a Brad Pitt lookalike but that’s for another post, I’m nothing if not logical and practical.
I can see that the youth of today will derive more benefit from being able to use spreadsheet software than they would from knowing that Lord Nelson was shot in the eye with an arrow at the Battle of Waterloo !
However, if we don’t know where we come from and what has moulded us both as individuals and as nations how can we truly understand ourselves and society ?
I was prompted into this by reading about the lamentable state of historical knowledge amongst the UK population - 1,000s of people polled thought Churchill was a nodding dog in a TV ad for example !
It’s easy to laugh at such things, indeed I’ve done so myself
Statistics such as 13% of the population thinking that Horatio Hornblower won the Battle of Trafalgar induce both shakes of the head and wry smiles but how funny is it that 45% of Britons associate nothing at all with the word Auschwitz ?
I think it’s arguable as to the depth of knowledge required of history for those not actually specialising in the subject but surely a basic awareness of who we are and how we got here are a prerequisite of general all round education not to mention respect for the past !
They say history repeats itself and so it does - we are in the middle of the so called credit crunch much of which could perhaps have been avoided if more people had kept one eye on past events !
Knowledge and education continually evolves and given that fact it means some things have to go as new things come in but surely there is room for grounding people in some basics and saving them from the descent into appearing to be, and in some cases more than appearing to be, a moron whose only use is to be a laughing stock in statistics !
I raise a glass to basic education
Cheers
Rod
Little Brother said,
December 15, 2008 @ 10:53 pm
Rod,
Another good ‘un. It is incredible isn’t it? The same goes for fresh faced trainee chefs straight out of college-they’re dumbstruck by the most basic cookery methods. Sorry, it’s been a tad stressful today-back to history. Travelling back from Cumbria last week I listened to a Jewish lady’s acount of how she was sent to England in the Second World War with her sister only to be seperated into different families in different cities at the train station.
She recalled how she heard her father whisper to her mother across the dinner table that they should give the children up as the Nazi Commander had spat in his face that morning and he realised that he was done for. He was shot and her mother was gassed.
I had been moaning like hell about the weather on the motorway until that point. We should all be reminded of our history, not just the kids.
LB
chris keyworth said,
July 31, 2009 @ 8:58 pm
My take on history be it right or be it wrong…….
there are two types of history to me Modern History & Ancient History.
Modern History Personally holds no interest to me however i do think it is no less an important a subject than Ancient History both sides of the same coin to coin a phrase.
Ancient History totaly facinates me it dominates my interest at least 16 hours a day, i have had the good fortune to handle my fare share of history over the years from digging in Cathage North Africa to digging at Stallingborough on the Medieval Village, my historical range is varied but mainly Local, I have been called over the years a Local Historian who deals in facts, i am a blood hound that is true i hunt the facts and the evidence of civilisation in every field and with the advent of me being computer litterate these days, the internet has the ability of throwing up some tantelising snippets of local history (as rod puts it GOLD DUST). i like that.
so what do i specialise in….
Coins, Celtic throught to 1650s
Pottery Roman and Medieval
Medieval Monastic History
Medieval Floor Tiles
Medieval Geneology.
Not bad for somone that was not allowed to take History at School.
regards
chris