History.....or the lack of it.

A recent discussion brought about a revelation that I wish to share with you.  History is something we are taught in school, yet do we ever question what we are taught, how it is taught and why it is taught the way it is?  I never did because I never enjoyed the history that was being taught to me throughout elementary and high school that I simply ignored the subject altogether.  Although I did watch quite a few movies and documentaries that dealt with a wide variety of events throughout history and I find it sad that what was on TV was more of a teacher than my teachers.

What exactly do they teach in history at school?
This may depend on where you live but for me history began with those who originally settled in Canada and led up to WW2.  It was not until this year that I could understand the context of what was being taught to me.  I was being taught about violence, nationalism and genocide.  My teachers were forcing me to remember exact dates, of exact events, in exact places, and long list of political figures and all the dates that went along with them.  I was also forced to learn about a culture and a group of people that were believed to be lesser individuals and deemed to be savages.  I did not learn about the Roman Empire, the Greeks, the Egyptians or any other great culture that came before us, nor were we taught about any other indigenous people.

How was it taught to me?
Names, dates, places, and events, long lists of which were drilled into my head in order to be regurgitated later when it came time to write a test which was taught in such a way that the importance, significance or context would not be fully understood, no questioned in an effort to brainwash the student populace.  We were not taught to question, nor were we taught to form an opinion by our teachers, our opinions were provided for us by our text book.  The same book that paints a pretty picture of our handling of the native people, yet what I was not taught was how we stole from them, how we lied and manipulated them and how we eventually killed or exterminated them because they chose not to conform or assimilate into a culture that was not theirs, on their own land.

Why is it taught to us in such a way?
Our history classes are designed in such a way that it curbs our enthusiasm to learn more about history by simply boring us to death with constant drilling of names, place and dates.   This then prevents people from thinking for themselves, by teaching hard facts without allowing them to interpret history on their own.  It’s important to know your own roots, but history it not simply the past few hundred years, nor is it the past two thousand years.  Our history is limitless.  History should provide us with a complete understanding of who we are as human beings and how we came to, but that is not the case and that is why were are doomed to repeat its mistakes over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.  What they teach us is not history but merely names, dates, places.  There are no lessons to be learnt, no mistakes to be analyzed, questioned or debated.