Why do we have to learn all this history in high school and college if we're never going to use it?

Question

I mean wuts the point to all this history if we choose to go into the medical field or a chef? It just seems like a waste to me.

Answer 1

Hey! You might get on a game show, you never know....

Answer 2

When you're a chef , what political party will you be affiliated with ? Why ? The answer comes from history , unless you plan to be a sheep like so many others in this country and follow a party line without knowing the history behind it and what might happen if certain major political decisions are made. If you don't know what happened when someone else decided to do something and it ended in disaster , maybe you'll do it again or elect someone else who will repeat the disaster. " Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it "

Answer 3

As a high school student I was always annoyed by students who would ask: Why do we have to learn this stuff [history] anyway? We learn history so we don't repeat our mistakes. This is the common answer that my teachers, my father, and just about any other adult would give. This answer made perfect sense to me then, and I easily accepted it. In high school, students learn about the Nazi-Holocaust, and rightfully so. Information abounds regarding this topic. However, my teachers never taught me that our country has a Holocaust of its own (actually there are two; one killing 40 to 60,000,000 Africans, and one killing 100,000,000 Native Red Peoples).
Hitler himself often expressed his admiration for the expediency in which the American Christians removed the Native Americans and gave them mass graves like the one in Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Have you ever heard the words American Holocaust(s) before? As I read about history I was drawn to the Indian Wars. One day I began reading Dee Brown's book "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." I was shocked by what I read. I had never been taught these things, yet this history seemed so important and unparalleled in American history. Recently, I picked up Brown's book and read it a second time. Finally, the words shook me from the sleep in which we Americans love to overindulge; the sleep of denial, materialism, and hedonism. The thoughts and images evoked in Brown's book came back and my heart filled with an indescribable feeling of painful anger again. I thought to myself, I'm glad that is all over with, I don't know what I would have done if I had been alive then.

The words of William McPherson of the Washington Post regarding Brown's book reassured my emotion: Shattering, appalling, compelling. . . .One wonders, reading this searing, heartbreaking book, who, indeed, were the savages." If you take from the reading of Brown's book and others something remotely resembling what I take, the societal and environmental problems of today find their roots: roots which are still being well nourished.

Parts of Browns book remained in my mind, in particular, the Sand Creek Massacre (in present day Colorado). I went to the library to read more about the subject. I was in a hurry, so I quickly grabbed an encyclopedia. I first looked under Sand Creek Massacre, shocked at finding nothing, I searched under Battle of Sand Creek and found nothing. The Sand Creek Massacre did not appear anywhere! I was, to use Mcpherson's word, appalled. I kept looking, surely the World Book would have it. To my surprise, the book ignored one of the bloodiest and most grotesque massacres in American history. Well, I thought, surely the Encyclopedia Americana will have it. Blank. All encyclopedias had somehow forgotten those Native American men, women, and children. Why was it that the Boston Massacre, wherein 5 men lost their lives, was in every book? The 133 human beings who lost their lives in the most grotesque and mutilated way on Sand Creek were nowhere to be found. If a massacre like Sand Creek did not appear in encyclopedias and textbooks how were young people (and adults) to be taught of the Camp Grant Massacre, the Piegan Massacre, the Massacres of California, the Marias Massacre, the Washita Massacre, Guatemala in the 70s and 80s, the Chiapas Massacre of 1997, the present day massacres in South America, Present day East Timor and so many others?

Answer 4

to show off.
to see how the past shaped the present.
don't make a mistake twice.

(present president excluded).

it boosts your gpa cus its easy. I also agree with the guy above its vital for conversations with intelligent people, so while the actual content may be worthless, you have to know the context cus you can't be a chef or physician without being able to communicate.

Answer 5

History is there for ever, if we didn't pass it on how would our children and our future know ,and the most important thing is, society has to learn from the mistakes its made thus learning history...

Answer 6

If you put it that way, so is math, science, etc. depending on your career choice. 90% of what you learn will never be used again. But employers demand an education. Suck it up and be grateful you have the opportunity to go to school.

Answer 7

A country or person that doesnt know its history, is doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over.
Also, knowing your past is a fundamental tool in building your future.

Answer 8

Because we hope that you will participate in society by voting and otherwise expressing an informed opinion. We hope that you will use your knowledge of history to avoid the mistakes of the past and to repeat past succcesses.

Answer 9

Yeah, it kinda does seem like a waste when you're learning it, but it's a lot of anecdotal information and information for the sake of reference during conversations that make it worth-while to learn. It will help to make you more well-rounded and a better conversationalist.

Answer 10

That's part of general knowledge. Knowing this things is a part of an educated person. Think about that. =)

Answer 11

It's important for us to know what has happened in the past so we can improve in the present and future.