History is so boring!

[Mercen-X]

The title of this thread makes me weep inside.

it's just your hypoallergies acting up.

observed and cared for like a picture of a kitten doing something cute.

also boring

[Iceglow]

I love history, in fact there aren't enough arm pairs on a colbert smilie to express how I feel about this thread title.

The only history I find hard to bother with is post WW2 stuff. The Cold War (including the space race), Vietnam, Korea, they're interesting enough military history always is but I find it quite hard to sit there going through the history of the Civil Rights movement of America ect. I can still enjoy reading it but I'm one of these people who prefers my history ancient. In particular Viking and medieval European history impresses me immensely. I would love to go up to the Shetney Islands and see the Neolithic era stuff up there.

[Peegee]

It is almost assuredly true that people will make the same stupid mistakes if they aren't aware of history. And as for modern history, look at the last 12 years - world history and politics and economics (YES I WAS ABLE TO TIE ECONOMICS TO A PIKU THREAD I RULE) - the same crap gets done over and over and if you can't maintain a coherent memory past 2 years you will forget everything and have no context.

History is good.

[Jinx]

It's almost assuredly true that people will make the same mistakes even if they ARE aware of history.

[Mercen-X]

Heh. I never said History was useless or pointless. Of course, it has a purpose, otherwise they wouldn't bother teaching it. But it's not easy to pay attention to something that is usually only the least bit entertaining.

[Iceglow]

The fact that history often repeats itself is not because the people are ignorant of the past though to be ignorant of the past is to condemn oneself to repeating it. The fact is it is human hubris and arrogance which allows the past to repeat itself so frequently essentially the people involved in the repeat of the past be they generals, philosophers, politicians or freedom fighters believe that this time they will be different, that they can do the same thing as the past but they will succeed where the others failed. It's why human arrogance and hubris are so appalling to me.

[Mercen-X]

I honestly believe I could rule the world better than the last guy.

[edczxcvbnm]

I love history but I loathe history class. History class gets bogged down on the who and that seems to be the least important detail. The tests are

This King of England tried to rape the colonists
a) King Henry the VIII
b) Chester the Molester
c) MacLeod the Highlander
d) King George the III
e) None of the Above

Which King is doing it seems like the least important detail. I am more interested in the Why, Where, How, What and a generalized When. You are not trying to make me a god damned historian so stop with the ultra specific dates and names. Know who invented something and the day they did it is no where near as important as what that invention meant for the time period and how it revolutionized transportation/production/seafearing/whatever and propelled humanity forward.

The who and the what is important but when you are trying to teach all of western civilization in a year(my school), those should not be half the questions on every test and you lose the point of history's lessons because you are not focused on that because you are not being tested on it.

Knowing that Eli Whitney invented the cotten gin in 1793 really doesn't help me in anything. It is a trivia fact and not much more.

[Mercen-X]

Indubitably. All trivia facts can recently more or less be acquired by means of internet research. Not much of what history class currenly offers is interesting much less considerably useful.

[Quindiana Jones]

You've hit the nail on the head, ed. History class is easily one of the hardest to teach, simple because it's so easy to do wrong. I read recently about this history teacher who did it so right that I fell in love with him a little. He set his class a challenge; pick your favourite person in American history, and explain to the class why they were awesome. The students would argue in favour of their person and try to convince the class theirs is best, then the class would vote on which one they liked most. The next week, or month, the students would make another argument in favour of their subject, but it would have to be with all new information about them. It really was a brilliant idea, because these students became really invested in these people. They had the liberty to choose who to represent, which ensured that they were genuinely invested in the subject.

[Mercen-X]

G*d*a*n*d! Now I'm in love!

[Clo]

I was working with a few students once who were struggling to pass the Regents exam that they needed in order to graduate. I sat in a few times on the history class to observe the students before I began working with them. The teacher covered the Vietnam War in three days.

THREE DAYS.

[Pike]

I was working with a few students once who were struggling to pass the Regents exam that they needed in order to graduate. I sat in a few times on the history class to observe the students before I began working with them. The teacher covered the Vietnam War in three days.

THREE DAYS.

I will concede that this is the biggest problem with learning American History in this day and age. By the time you get to World War II or so, WHOOPS, IT'S SUMMERTIME!

[Sephex]

I was working with a few students once who were struggling to pass the Regents exam that they needed in order to graduate. I sat in a few times on the history class to observe the students before I began working with them. The teacher covered the Vietnam War in three days.

THREE DAYS.

I will concede that this is the biggest problem with learning American History in this day and age. By the time you get to World War II or so, WHOOPS, IT'S SUMMERTIME!

That wasn't really a problem in my school district, but I will say that all history classes that I was in grinded to a halt when the World Wars arrived. I really like WWII stuff, but even I thought spending half a quarter on it was just too much.

[Pike]

WWI is just as interesting and doesn't get half as much attention as WWII. Which saddens my inner grognard.