Why Study History?

Chapter 11 "How Do I Engage Students in Examining History?" tells the reader many reasons why students in grades K-8 should study history. History provides students with a variety of skills that will help them succeed later in life. 

History helps to prepare students for "responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our modern economy" (pg. 335).

History provides the opportunity for both socialization and counter-socialization experiences. The role of history in schools has mostly been to socialize students in the US democratic tradition and to prepare them to be citizens.

History incorporates not only the study of the origin of the nation, and it's struggles to grow physically, politically, and economically, or famous people and events, but it also includes multicultural/global/gender-related information.  

Social studies should include experiences that provide for the study of the ways human beings view themselves in and over time. It should be linked to people and ideas that remain the same over generations. (pg. 343)

Looking at the following standards for history, students are learning how to comprehend, how to research and make decisions. These are important skills that students need to learn in order to succeed in life. Students need to be able to research topics to formulate ideas and be able to interpret what they have learned. 

National Standards for History K - 12

1. Chronological thinking

2. Historical comprehension

3. Historical analysis and interpretation

4. Historical research capabilities

5. Historical issues analysis and decision making (pg. 344)

The study of history is "vital for all citizens in a democracy because it provides the only avenue we have to teach an understanding of ourselves and of our society, in relation to the human condition over time, and how some things change and other continue" (pg. 346). The author refers to this as being able to gain access to the laboratory of human experience. Referring to history in this way is a excellent metaphor. In a laboratory, there are specimen that you dissect until you find what you are looking for. In a similar way, historians dissect the past, finding out about people and places until they find that key component that they are looking for.

"The study of history can stimulate us to examine our present behaviors with an eye towards making appropriate changes while maintaining continuity with our worthy past" (pg. 369). Part of History is learning about the past and how to change our future based on what we've learned.

It is difficult to state one single rationale for the study of history. There are many reasons, such as the aforementioned, that prove why students should study social studies in the classroom. From having the opportunity to socialize as historians, to learning to be a responsible and productive citizen, history should not be a subject that is easily dismissed in the classroom.