History

History is interesting. I have found, though, that History as a subject- not so much. One time I borrowed a highly recommended book on ancient history all eagerness to refresh my stagnating mind. Not even 2 pages into the book I decided the present was a much better time to focus on. It had brought back memories of torturous minutes reading through my history book- minutes, yes, but they felt like hours, memorizing all those dates (of which I can recall only a handful), and trying to decipher one gray character from the next in a monotone text. It isn’t that dates are bad, but what about the wonder, the lessons, all the intriguing people and events that affected our way of life and thought today? History touches every other subject- it can work like a bridge between all of them: discoveries in math, the sciences, arts, politics…and yet it often gets allotted it’s own stark corner. The subject gets treated with bland detachment maybe because it is dissected from it’s relevancy. I don’t get it, and what’s more- I highly suspect it doesn’t work. I knew of an American adult whom had graduated with at least her bachelor’s who could not remember what the 4th of July was meant to celebrate. And, how many times have those visiting from other countries proven they know more about our history than we do? Okay, I could go on about this for hours and upbraid the entire education system, but I won’t. There are great books out there and there are great teacher’s, there are people who love and appreciate history…I just wish we had more of them.