My teenage son believes that History is boring and waste of time.?

Question

He believes that historical events that happened decades, or hundreds of years ago, is irrelevant, a waste of time and is of no use to him. I believe I felt the same way about history at his age. How can I spark his interest in World History? Is this normal for a teenager to think this way?

Answer 1

I felt this way too at the beginning. However it was the Holocaust and WWII that sparked my interest. Maybe have him watch The Cinderella Man, that has to do with the depression. It definately helped me relate my studies to that movie. Overall, I think it's fascinating that the past events are what make today.. today. That history DOES repeat itself, etc.

Answer 2

Historical events that happened decades or hundreds of years ago ARE NOT irrelevant, a waste of time, and of no use. Screenwriters in Hollywood retell the same old myths from hundreds of years ago, and with the combination of CGI special effects, entertain the masses who find History "boring and a waste of time..." A good example would be the comic book/movie '300' about the Spartans at Thermopylae.

Perhaps your son may be impressed by the ability to tell what is fiction in the entertainment he watches -- and what is fact.

Answer 3

It's normal for him to feel this way about history. There is a saying that the history book on the shelf is constantly repeating itself.

In April 1995 all peace loving Americans were horrified when Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma city and killed all those innocent people.

But in 1605 radical Catholics in England attempted to blow up Parliament but the fuse went out.

There is a book John F. Kennedy wrote called "Why England Slept". After WWI there was a treaty and Britian and the US got to complacent and disarmed while Hitler's Germany rearmed and prepared to take over the world. There was a time Hitler was a little shrimp and England could have done him in fast.

We can't sleep with Osama Bin Laden.

Answer 4

Wow. For some reason this affected me, and I'm 16. I personally never thought I'd be interested in history UNTIL I got into my World History class in 10th grade.(Although I enjoyed European history in 7th grade). I think it's the most fascinating subject, and it's now my best subject.

Everyone has different tastes though. Perhaps he likes math? Sports? English? It's not bad that he thinks history is boring. I absolutely think U.S. History is my least favorite but I am still interested in learning it.

The best thing you can do is wait. When it starts to spark your son's mind, he'll probably learn to like it. It's pretty normal for him to think it's boring...but the interest usually sparks around the time they learn about the World Wars, since it's more current.

Also, tell him it's very useful knowing about the past, because it prevents us from making the mistakes in the future!

Answer 5

History was actually one of my favorite subjects when I was a kid, but that's because my folks took my sisters and me to a lot of historical sites or museums. Some of the best places we'd go would be places where you could climb all over things and operate them or where you had folks in period costumes who could answer your questions. Sure you could have a park ranger doing so, but it seems so much more intresting coming from the mouth of someone in costume. Especially if they have to pretend to be living in the time their depicting. And also if they are putting on demonstrations. For instance, demonstration of the firing of a cannon or a group of muskets is a fast way to get you're attention, but it doesn't last as long as demonstrations of making a musketball or carding wool. So you might want to take your son someplace where he can have that kind of experiment.

On the other side of the coin, textbooks can be pretty dull and boring. Enough to turn anyone off of any subject. So try finding out what he really likes and then provide him with books or videos that might be centered on the history of those things and how they have affected or been affected by the world around them. For instance, let's say your son is really into baseball. So get some books on the history of baseball and how things like WWII and Korea affected the game. Or affects the game had on other social elements(such as the color barrier and when baseball became intergrated). If he's into car racing, plenty of books and videos there too. But whatever it is, try to get something intresting, something that's gonna make him want to learn about it and possibly branch out to other things.

Answer 6

I love history when it's about people not just a bunch of dates.
I love to learn about the Civil War here are just a few things I find interesting. historical records verify the fact that over eighty women were either wounded or killed at various battles during the Civil War. It is estimated that over 400 women served in the Civil War on both sides, not counting the thousands who served as nurses.
"Major" Pauline Cushman claimed
Confederate sympathy yet
she actually spied for the Union,
often as an actress.
Her many adventures were
capitalized upon by P.T. Barnum
who advised her tours.

Just make him see that these where people who lived wonderful lives.

Answer 7

I have to agree with some of the previous answers, particularly about trying to make it more interesting. I don't know how much relevance this has any more, but when I was a kid, they would run a lot of WWII movies on TV. After all, our parents had gone through the war, and we all had a reference point to look at. It was like, "Dad, was it really like this?"
Ken Burns has done a lot to make somewhat boring subjects interesting, and starting on the 23rd of this month he is starting a series called "the War" on PBS. This is about WWII, this could be something that inspires your son to do more investigating, starting with the PBS website that usually has accompanying material to go along with the big series, and they've been plugging this one all summer, by re-running the Civil War.

That said, and sounding like a commercial, I'm sorry to say, I also want to give you a link to a website that Skip Knox has done for his History students at Boise State. It's aimed at college students, but it doesn't presuppose any knowledge of the subject matter, and he presents it in an interesting way.

The material he has done himself, is under Secondary Sources. The primary sources are links to things like the Medieval Sourcebook, great if you're interested in reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, or Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, but not what I'd recommend for a kid who might find Warcraft more interesting than the Medieval warfare it seems to mimic.

Answer 8

It's pretty normal for teenagers. They really have no appreciation for the past since everything about their lives is about the present. For me, my first spark of interest in history was related to airplanes. I'd always loved military aircraft, and as I learned about them I started to work my way back in history to know more about them. Eventually my interest expanded to include other aspects of military history, and finally just history in general.

Find something he likes, and encourage him to learn something about where it came from.

Good luck.

Answer 9

It is normal for many teenagers. I found it fascinating, personally. You will have to find a way to make history relevant to him and his lifestyle. Perhaps insert a bit of genealogy, or take him to some historic sites.

Answer 10

Tell him: If he doesn't learn from history, he's doomed to repeat it. :0)

No matter how old history is, it is a *vital* part of our education. You can't go through life without knowing our past.

Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, Julius Ceasar...they are all important figures in our history--and played vital roles in the development of our civilization.

Without Leonardo da Vinci, we wouldn't have tanks, guns, bridges, or helicopters today. (Or the Da Vinci Code movie! lol)

His wing designs also inspired hundreds of people to try and "fly" over the course of time--following his death.

Of course, things didn't go well as planned, but it didn't stop anyone from trying.

History allows us to keep connected to our past in ways no one thought possible.

And without it, we would have no guide for the future.