My epiphany

[CodeJockey]

You know, I was an honors student all the way through school, and I generally liked to learn. I loved english, math, and especially science. The subjects I hated were history, economics, and general social studies. I can remember saying over and over again from junior high through high school, "This is useless to learn because it does not impact my life." I knew then that I was going to be a computer programmer. I was right in my career path (as evidenced by my username) but so, so wrong in my beliefs. Now I realize, that all of those years I wasted, barely studying those subjects, just doing enough to get by, that I was dead wrong. These are probably the most impactful subjects in my life. History, economics, and all other social studies dictate the world we live in, and only by understanding what has happened in the past and in other cultures can we truly learn from our mistakes and move forward. I hope I can ingrain a better understanding of this in my kids than I had when I was in their shoes.

[WarHawk-AVG]

All you can do is guide them...just don't try to lecture them or fix your mistakes thru their lives...they will resent you for it.

[seamusTX]

You can discuss current events with your kids. Just to use the obvious example, you could ask them whom they would vote for in the current election, if they could vote. Then discuss the possible consequences of their choice.

Expand the discussion to the federal, state, and local races aside from president, and why those are important.

My parents did not exactly do this with me (they were Roosevelt Democrats who lived through the Depression and WW II), but they did it with monetary matters. They taught me how budgets, checking accounts, and credit cards work. That education kept me out of a pit of trouble in my adult life.

You will have to figure out how to fit this into the way that your family does things.

I keep seeing reports that children would like to converse with their parents more than they currently do (as opposed to lecturing and interrogation), so this might work out well.

- Jim

[CodeJockey]

Good advice. I will definitely try to do this.

[The Annoyed Man]

I'm fortunate in that I was born with a love of history, and studying it in school came easily to me. But for me, it is not enough to just learn American history. One of the things I remember most fondly from high school was that, at the private school I attended, we had 2 years of Ancient History and 2 years of Latin as a requirement to graduation (no, it was not a parochial school). Reading of Caesar's conquests of Gaul in a history class was the skeleton. Reading his description of it in Latin (Gallia en tres partes divisa est) hung flesh on those bones. In an Ancient History class, you learn about Hammurabi and the earliest known (at the time) written codifying of law. You learn about the 300 at Thermopylae, and what teenaged boy would not be enthralled by the exploits in that particular tale of valor. In fact "Gates of Fire," a historical fiction written by Steven Pressfield in 1998 about the 300 at Thermopylae has become required reading both at West Point and at VMI, and has attained cult status among the Marine Corps, precisely because the historical truths it contains about what it means to be a warrior. In ancient history, you learn how to build a Trireme, and how to measure the movements of the stars at Stonehenge. You gain a sense for how the cultural values which exist today are rooted in the history of a people.

You cannot truly understand the world in which you live without some understanding of its history. I loved history then, and I love it now. Is my knowledge of it perfect? No, it isn't; but nobody's is. On the other hand, I believe that my social and political outlook today are as much informed by my study of history as it is by my Christian faith. (By the way, the Bible has also turned out to be a largely accurate historical document of ancient history.) It is my knowledge of history that makes me a conservative.

In fact, I was struck by Keith B's post from a couple of days ago in which he quoted Quintus Tullius Cicero from the year 55 B.C.: "The budget should be balanced, the treasury refilled, public debt reduced, the arrogance of officialdom tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt." Those who forget, or worse, choose to ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. In truth, I would rather not have to, which is why I congratulate you, codejockey on your epiphany. I hope more folks have one.

[Keith B]

I thought I had an epiphany once, but it was just gas.

Seriously, I think it is an age old story. I remember thinking the same thing as a teen that 'I will never use this stuff'. Then I needed it and had to dig back and get what I didn't learn, or at least didn't retain.

Now that my daughter is 15, I hear the same thing from her at times. It's a vicious cycle.

[LedJedi]

You can discuss current events with your kids. Just to use the obvious example, you could ask them whom they would vote for in the current election, if they could vote. Then discuss the possible consequences of their choice.

+1

I did this recently with my 8 year old daughter. She said she would vote for Obama because he seemed nicer. I cringed a bit and explained that she should probably vote based not only on personal intuition but also on their beliefs and what they would do in certain situations. Being 8, this was a novel concept and I got the usual, "you're so smart, daddy".

Then she flipped it around on me unexpectedly and asked who I was going to vote for. For some reason i was a bit stunned. I told her I don't vote because I don't believe our system of voting accurately represents the will of the people because individual votes make little matter in an electoral college system. After another 15 minutes explaining how the electoral college worked she then responded with, "That's just silly. They shouldn't do it like that."

She took the words right out of my mouth.

[mr.72]

I think it is the case with most of what is taught in public schools. When I was in school, history, economics, social studies, geography, etc. were drudgery. But they didn't bother to get real teachers to teach them. All of my history and related classes were taught by coaches, whose real job was to be a football coach. That's right, 100%.

My kids love history, and have a distinct interest in economics. I think the problem is with the way it is taught in public school. You can't separate subjects the way they do in public schools and expect them to have any relevance. Likewise teaching music, art, math, etc. without some history doesn't make sense. You can't separate the relevance of history with any current teaching, in my opinion. I even teach quite a bit of history in guitar lessons! I mean, teaching math without coupling it with science or economics is pretty dry. Teaching economics without linking it to math and politics (social studies) makes little sense. Teaching social studies without relation to history or economics makes little sense. Really most of the founding of this country had as much to do with math and economics as they did with religion and liberty.

[mr.72]

I did this recently with my 8 year old daughter. She said she would vote for Obama because he seemed nicer. I cringed a bit and explained that she should probably vote based not only on personal intuition but also on their beliefs and what they would do in certain situations. Being 8, this was a novel concept and I got the usual, "you're so smart, daddy".

Then she flipped it around on me unexpectedly and asked who I was going to vote for. For some reason i was a bit stunned. I told her I don't vote because I don't believe our system of voting accurately represents the will of the people because individual votes make little matter in an electoral college system. After another 15 minutes explaining how the electoral college worked she then responded with, "That's just silly. They shouldn't do it like that."

She took the words right out of my mouth.

I think our children almost always end up adopting their parents' political viewpoints at that age, since the parents are likely to strongly present their side of the argument and not the other side in the same way.

In point of fact I think the electoral college has saved us from a lot of bad things. I seriously doubt the residents of Texas as a whole would prefer to be governed largely by the choices of people living in New York and California. I am not sure we'd have any right to own and carry firearms in Texas if that were the case.

[longhorn_92]

I'm fortunate in that I was born with a love of history, and studying it in school came easily to me. But for me, it is not enough to just learn American history. One of the things I remember most fondly from high school was that, at the private school I attended, we had 2 years of Ancient History and 2 years of Latin as a requirement to graduation (no, it was not a parochial school). Reading of Caesar's conquests of Gaul in a history class was the skeleton. Reading his description of it in Latin (Gallia en tres partes divisa est) hung flesh on those bones. In an Ancient History class, you learn about Hammurabi and the earliest known (at the time) written codifying of law. You learn about the 300 at Thermopylae, and what teenaged boy would not be enthralled by the exploits in that particular tale of valor. In fact "Gates of Fire," a historical fiction written by Steven Pressfield in 1998 about the 300 at Thermopylae has become required reading both at West Point and at VMI, and has attained cult status among the Marine Corps, precisely because the historical truths it contains about what it means to be a warrior. In ancient history, you learn how to build a Trireme, and how to measure the movements of the stars at Stonehenge. You gain a sense for how the cultural values which exist today are rooted in the history of a people.

You cannot truly understand the world in which you live without some understanding of its history. I loved history then, and I love it now. Is my knowledge of it perfect? No, it isn't; but nobody's is. On the other hand, I believe that my social and political outlook today are as much informed by my study of history as it is by my Christian faith. (By the way, the Bible has also turned out to be a largely accurate historical document of ancient history.) It is my knowledge of history that makes me a conservative.

In fact, I was struck by Keith B's post from a couple of days ago in which he quoted Quintus Tullius Cicero from the year 55 B.C.: "The budget should be balanced, the treasury refilled, public debt reduced, the arrogance of officialdom tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt." Those who forget, or worse, choose to ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. In truth, I would rather not have to, which is why I congratulate you, codejockey on your epiphany. I hope more folks have one.

I so agree with you here. We are cyclical in nature - and when you do not learn your lessons from those before...you have a very good chance of repeating.

[jimlongley]

Coming from a family with long generations, learned a lot of history at the knees of grandparents who had been there and done that.

The big problem for me was knowing that what we were being taught was not necessarily true and arguing with doctrinaire teachers about the dogma they were spouting.

Wounded Knee was not a battle, as we were taught, but a massacre, as my grandmother told me, my grandmother whose father was there.