US History
 

I hate when I'm not around and Miss topics I'd like to comment on, there was a topic I wished I could got in on but its locked now. I jsut found something said in very very very frightening especially as history major.

Something Like our (US) History is pathetic.

As a laxadasical history major I was actually brought up on stories of WWII battles and Korea. My father was also a hstory buff and it the best thing he could think of to tell me about in my youth.

I think the only thing wrong with our history is there is not enough of it. There are quite a few places in Europe where they refer to events that happened hundreds of years ago like it was recent. Here we almost forget about something that happened 10 years ago.

But our history itself is is very interesting and is more than just a collection of wars. I'd wish as nation we'd study our own history and just history in general more.

And the state of our world awareness has scared me since I took a Current events class in highschool and a disturbing amount of students didn't know shit. And it not even a bad school, fairly middle class.

I don't know.

Do we not understand our history?

Look at society, look at the moral degredation of our country, how can we possibly remember our roots?

Sometimes, I think history happens too fast. Every day we are bombarded with new technology, political issues, events, etc. It seems like I'm hardly used to one thing, when it develops into something else, or is replaced. I think that in this day and age, so many more things are going on at once, not many of us can keep up. Just think, 200 years ago, so much more of life was about family, doing your work around the house/farm/etc. Women's lives were completely wrapped up in their husbands and children...Today, we are all striving to do more, more, more, more. Ya know?

It's not that we don't appreciate our history (though it is), it's that events that are called "historic" are happening all the time, even though within a century they'll have little effect on the books. While I appreciate the efforts of the people fighting the war on terror, what are the real chances that it'll get as much coverage as, say, WWII? The difference is that we now have lots more media coverage on everything, even those that aren't important for the actual books.

When slavery gets a paragraph in a textbook while vietnam gets chapters, you can understand how we view our history.

Bah, this days generation cares nothing for history. I see my classmates asleep and uninterested by history. I know they'll forget, or that they consider it to be pointless and boring. Even the non-stupid kids care little for history. Only a precious few actually know or care what happened in our nation's history, much less any others.

Learning history is a GOOD thing. If we don't learn from the past, then we're doing everyone a disservice. ARRGGHH!! Stop watching American Idol and getting drunk! Do something significant with your lives. I hate my generation.

/rant off

Though I find history to be extremely interesting I can sympathize with people who would rather sleep through class. Schools generally don't teach history in any meaningful context, so to Joe Schmoe it all sounds like a jumbled bunch of random facts. What especially upsets me about History classes is some don't teach what I consider the two things EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW:

1. The most important, The Bill of Rights: Every single American should know their fundamental rights as citizens of this country. Period.

2. The Declaration of Independence: Why our government is labeled "U.S.A." on maps instead of "New Britain". Another fun thing to do is to go through the list of grievances against the king and see how many of them our current government has committed since then.

couldn't have said it better myself. Not that there aren't the motivated ones of our generation (I know plenty of history majors) but on a whole (and what our lovely media loves to show us) its pretty grim.

I some times hate this generation too...

About your history I'd say that it has too many wars in it! Just too many. You have especially too many attacks on other nations. And I do know that we in europes history have many too (more than you, but we also have a history longer than yours), but I say this as a finn not as a european.

Personally, I love history, but most of what I know, I did not learn in school. There is so much history that it's hard to teach it. I mean, how do you cover a 200 year period in one semester? The teachers can only teach so much. It's up to the students to learn more. A test doesn't show how well you comprehend the material. For the most part, if the person doesn't develop the interest in history when their younger. They won't when they grow up.

I blame the media, as usual, for the lack of history. If more people just watched the history channel instead of watching American Idol or the OC, then we would have a lot better foundation for the future years of our country. I am scared for out country if our generation is who is going to take over. There are way to many ignorant people, but then again, I guess it's like that in most generations.

Overall, I find history interesting...it's just that i cant really remember anything, and i sort of dont really care. My teacher is just bad at her job (for me to pay attention anyway), once i was supposed to use actual facts for an essay. I didn't know this, so i made up the entire culture, and she believed me. it really depends on how the events and facts are introduced, otherwise it's pointless.