By Studying History, We Can Learn What Was And What Is; What Worked And What Didn’t Work; What Made Us Who We Are And How We Are Unique. In Short, Understanding The Past Helps Us To Learn About The Present And Better Steer The Future.


“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana (1863 –1952, Spanish and American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist)

“People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.” Edmund Burke (1729 –1797, Anglo-Irish statesman, economist, and philosopher)

Learning history is the laboratory of human experience

By studying history, we can learn what was and what is; what worked and what didn’t work; what made us who we are and how we are unique. In short, understanding the past helps to learn about the present and better steer the future.

We gain empathy when we learn the history of what others experienced

What tragedies or hardships happened in different cultures and time periods? What caused them and how could they have been prevented? When we learn about the past, we can related them to modern day situations and events.

Learning history helps us understand our heritage

By learning the experiences of our ancestors, we get a better understanding of ourselves – why we have certain joys, behaviors or struggles. We can also learn ethnic health facts that may drive future health decisions.

We learn how everything changes

Even other subjects that you study have a history to them and it may be important to see how they evolved over time, what worked and what didn’t.

Learning history helps answer questions

Spend a day with any three year old and you’ll quickly learn that humans are curious by nature. Take a deep dive into the clues that might help answer one of the most asked question in life – Why?

An education in history can help with many career choices:

• Arts

• Business

• Civics

• Education

• Genealogy

• Health

• Historian

• Human Services

• Law

• Library

• Military

• Politics

• Psychology

• Research

• Science

 

The reasons to learn history aren’t just what you might think. A five-year study from 2010 to 2014 showed that 18 percent of college history majors go on to become educators, trainers and librarians.1 That means more than 80 percent went on to work in other fields.

1 American Historical Association. (2017) History Is Not a Useless Major: Fighting Myths with Data. Available at: https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/april-2017/history-is-not-a-useless-major-fighting-myths-with-data