What About History?
Image by eddieisflying via Flickr
I was sitting in a parent’s meeting at my daughter’s high school the other night listening to the advantages of the advanced placement program for college prep. The advanced classes are available for various levels of core subjects. Teachers and other representatives explained the rewards for students scoring a certain level on the exam at the end of the school year. The costs of these exams would be covered 100% by a sponsoring foundation. For all subjects except history, that is.
Now I understand that the US has fallen behind in math and science and that is the main focus of the program. I don’t fault anyone for the lack of help on history. I mean at least they have a class for it. I just find it interesting that often times we forget the importance of history and knowing who we are and where we came from.
A common strategy in empirical conquests was to affect or wipe out a nation’s remembrance of their heritage. You’ll find examples all the way back to the Bible. the Babylonians used this strategy on the Hebrew nation. They took the best and brightest young men, fed them well, and educated them on the Chaldean way of life to effectively wipe out what they had been taught up to that point.
A thorough knowledge of our history may not bring about the next technological or scientific breakthrough, but it does further the forward progress of society by helping prevent the mistakes of the past.
from my notebook 
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