Why Study History
1) WHY AM I STUDYING HISTORY?
I started doing History as an academic subject in high school and found it very interesting back then, and this fascination with the subject has continued to be there. Although many people disregard history as important and influential, I believe the opposite because for humans to develop as a race, we have to keep in touch with, or at least understand what happened in the past before we got to where we are now; why it happened; how it happened and who were the people or subjects involved who created or were part of that history.
Story-telling about the past or ‘good old days’ as older people refer to it, has been a part of many of our lives and it is always interesting to hear about the many differences and slight similarities there are now compared to the old days. When people tell stories about the past we often try to paint our own pictures of what actually happened back then but we may never really get to see the full, actual picture of the past because the people telling these stories may not have experienced it themselves first-hand and it could well be hear-say. Fortunately, for those of us who are very much interested in history there are many historians and academics who spend a lot of their time to investigate the past and who go out of their way to paint an almost accurate picture of the past to the best of their abilities and resources available to them.
So, me being aware of those facts from previous exposure to history at school, I had this inquisitive urge of wanting to go deeper and learn more about our past and I decided to study history at tertiary level where my knowledge will become far better and lead me to be more of a critical thinker when exposed to sources I learn that deals with the past.
2) DO YOU BELIEVE STUDYING HISTORY CAN HELP TO PREVENT PAST MISTAKES?
History has come a very long way since the start of the human race and historians have made it their number one priority to trace as much
I started doing History as an academic subject in high school and found it very interesting back then, and this fascination with the subject has continued to be there. Although many people disregard history as important and influential, I believe the opposite because for humans to develop as a race, we have to keep in touch with, or at least understand what happened in the past before we got to where we are now; why it happened; how it happened and who were the people or subjects involved who created or were part of that history.
Story-telling about the past or ‘good old days’ as older people refer to it, has been a part of many of our lives and it is always interesting to hear about the many differences and slight similarities there are now compared to the old days. When people tell stories about the past we often try to paint our own pictures of what actually happened back then but we may never really get to see the full, actual picture of the past because the people telling these stories may not have experienced it themselves first-hand and it could well be hear-say. Fortunately, for those of us who are very much interested in history there are many historians and academics who spend a lot of their time to investigate the past and who go out of their way to paint an almost accurate picture of the past to the best of their abilities and resources available to them.
So, me being aware of those facts from previous exposure to history at school, I had this inquisitive urge of wanting to go deeper and learn more about our past and I decided to study history at tertiary level where my knowledge will become far better and lead me to be more of a critical thinker when exposed to sources I learn that deals with the past.
2) DO YOU BELIEVE STUDYING HISTORY CAN HELP TO PREVENT PAST MISTAKES?
History has come a very long way since the start of the human race and historians have made it their number one priority to trace as much