I love history. I love history because I think it is the most important subject taught in school. History is so important, I honestly am surprised sometimes that it is only one subject, given the same amount of attention as any other.
To give you an idea of why I view the study of history to be so crucial, here’s the way I think about it: Instead of calling it history, call it “everything we know so far.” Because that’s what the word “history” really means. It is the totality of human progress and evolution that we as a species have managed to record. Every major global event, every scientific discovery, every religious movement, every mathematical breakthrough is a part of this subject known as history.
But “history” has taken on a new context in today’s society. It has been marginalized by popular sayings like “that’s ancient history,” which is really an idiosyncratic way of saying “that’s irrelevant.” Though people, including myself, throw that phrase around, the underlying sentiment is that if it happened a long time ago, it could not possibly matter today. And honestly, that sentiment could not be further from the truth.
How does one even make decisions without history? When there is a big choice to make in my life -- say, I need to fill a wide receiver spot on my fantasy football team -- I look at how the different wide receivers have been playing. I look at the amount of catches they have been making, how many times they have scored and against who; I look at whether they have been healthy. In other words, I look at their recent history. The same process should be applied to world history and decisions that will affect the world’s history.
One of the most important reasons why knowledge of history remains essential is that it discredits widespread feelings that come as a result of ignorance. For instance, racism stems from the belief that people whose skin tone differs from one’s own means they are not only different, but biologically inferior. In reality, skin tone in humans differed over thousands of years and is dependent on the amount of sunlight experienced in different areas. People living in areas where the sun shines strong and bright year-round developed more pigment in their skin to deal with the sun’s rays, causing their skin to take on a darker tone. People living in colder, darker areas of the world did not need the pigment and passed down fair-skinned genes. In addition, all humans descended from common ancestors, meaning that differences between races resulted from differing environments and interactions, not from superior or inferior creation.
With that knowledge, the ideas behind racism seem to lack a logical foundation. Because they do. So instead of considering history just a bunch of memorization of stuff that happened forever ago, realize that one of the greatest problems we face in our country today -- racism -- could be solved if everyone just read a history book.
