Teaching and Learning History - Essay Example

Position Paper: Are There Lessons in History? Teaching and learning history has been taken seriously for a long time. Over the years, people have been relating present activities to similar ones in history. This relationship has been indicated to be based on the notion that history carries lessons for the present and the future. The proponents of this argument consider history as the most important lesson that people carry to the present and which determines the current activities and ways of doing things. However, there are arguments that there is apparently no lesson in history (Simon and Schuster, p. 146). The supporters of this argument indicate that every day and every occasion is different from all the rest. It is, therefore, not right to expect that history will provide viable lessons for the present, let alone the future. My position on this issue is that there are lessons in history. My position is based on three arguments. First, the conditions that lead to a problem in the past are more often than not the same that cause its repeat later in life. Secondly, present problems often result from failures to recognize and handle historical signs of the same. Thirdly, if it is true that the present prepares for the future and that the present will be history in future, and then history will have lessons to give the future. The social structure of the world undergoes minimal changes over the years. This implies that what the cause-effect relationship of incidences and events in history happen to be the same in the present. For instance, the history of war indicates that the causes of the first and second world wars were economic inequality and the search for trade and military superiority. This was caused by the lack of economic corporation. When the First World War ended, the world leaders did not take enough concern to handle the causes and hence the Second World War was inevitable. In both, tension events preceded the war outbreak and fuelled the attacks (Crescenzi, Kathman, and Long, p. 236). Presently, these are the lessons that the world always consider in monitoring the economic and trade environment of the world. This control through the IMF and World Bank, established after WWII is a lesson from history. The implementation of the deductions from those lessons has seen the world through more than 60 years if relatively peaceful existence and lack of conflicts. With capitalism and globalization, the fight for economic superiority in the world is not expected to undergo changes. This implies that the lessons learnt from history will always be relevant to mankind. My second argument in support of the thesis is that historical mistakes are the causes of present problems when they are not adequately identified and solved. A good example of these historical mistakes relates to the environmental issues and natural disaster preparedness. The tsunami that hit the Far East Coast in 2004 was devastating. Whereas it may be observed to have been the result of an inevitable natural occurrence, there were environmental mistakes that clearly indicate that the loss of lives and property would have been reduced. First, there arose claims that the earthquake sensors in the region indicated abnormal seismic readings that were supposed to be taken seriously. Failure to take them seriously meant that the people were not adequately warned before the tragedy (Zhang et al., pp. 19214-19219). Most people were, therefore, caught unaware and hence the precedent losses. It has become part of the history that provides a lesson to the world and its scientist family. Presently and in the future, the lesson makes the concerned scholars more careful in studying changes in the earth’s core and the waves hence prepare for the effects and, as a result, minimize losses. The same lessons are observed in the current efforts to minimize the environmental emission of harmful gases and compounds in the atmosphere. Historically, the lack of control in this issue has resulted to the greenhouse effect, global warming and climatic change. The mistake of the past, which forms part of the environmental history, gives viable lessons to the present. The present prepares for the future. The implication of this is that any activity that takes place in the present prepares for future operations and activities. For instance, political movements and ideologies are prepared in the present with the aim that they will affect and change the governance of a particular community in the future. They are based on identified need for change by the politicians (Zhang et al., p. 19217). Learning from history, politicians design ideologies and programs that will handle the issue identified. This is one instance where history provides a lesson to the present situation. Still in the political domain, a failure in an election may seem to be a political history. However, the politicians use these failures to plan, trying as much as possible to avoid the problems that resulted to the initial failure. In the aforementioned issue of environmental sustainability, measures to reduce climatic change and global warming are based on the lessons that are learnt from previous mistakes. The future is also expected to depend on what is being done in the present to improve the situation continuously. Since life is a continuous process of learning, history proves to be an important source of lessons for the present and the future. When continuously improving a situation, evaluation of its history is necessary to learn from the previous activities and hence be in a position to promote or improve the situation. Further, when developing a plan analysis of the history is done. If, for instance, a new plan needs to be developed, similar plans in history are analyzed to assess the feasibility of the current plan. With improvement, historical trends allow the planners to learn from previous mistakes, failures and success of the same and similar plans to improve a current one. It is, therefore, true to say that history provided viable information that can be used for the present and future. History provides lessons, and these lessons help improve the current and future life of humankind in the life that is characterized by continuous learning. Works cited Crescenzi, M. J.C., J. D. Kathman, and S. B. Long. “Reputation, History, and War.” Journal of Peace Research 2007 : 651–667. Simon and Schuster. Lessons of History. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1996. Print. Zhang, David D et al. “Global Climate Change, War, and Population Decline in Recent Human History.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104 (2007): 19214–19219.  Read More