Importance of History Education
Presenting the Full Truth to ensure a Better Future
The only way to keep history from repeating the same mistakes is to teach those mistakes with complete recognition of a country's wrongdoing, even if it is difficult to admit. For this discussion I will be focusing on American history and education.
Colonization: a thing of the past for Europe and it's descendants, the present for subjugated peoples.
We are taught the history of European imperialism and colonization in history classes, but the full extent of its influence on socio-economic and political issues in the present day is widely overlooked. In my own experience at public schools in Maryland, I recall learning about the British in India, the European scrambling over Africa, the Conquistadors and the Aztecs, the Apartheid, and of course, the Trail of Tears, but the curriculum was definitely lacking in the impact of those eras on the present day. Many argue that history should teach children to have pride in their country, or that some truths are too gruesome for a young audience, but it is because of these fears and reluctance to be upfront with new generations that prejudice and inequality persist 200 years after our country was founded on the novel principle that “all men are created equal.” I fear for our future when I see state governments creating false narratives of the history of our country because education is the groundwork for change. One can place as many laws as they can, but if you do not change the way people think, we are either held in stasis, or reverting to our shameful past.
Further Reading:
White-Washing History in Florida
“Historians’ Fallacies” by David Hackett Fischer and “The Rhetoric of Fiction” by Wayne Booth