“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” wrote George Santayana in his book, “The Life of Reason.” We have all heard this uttered to us at some point. It may have been in a musty classroom with 20 other students on a warm spring day, or spoken to a struggling student as a truism. This phrase is also commonly used as a way to justify the teaching of history in our education system to those in our education system who do not believe history needs to be taught.
Of those who feel that history should not be a requirement, many just find history plain old boring. This is because, I believe, of the classic way that history is taught to students. When people think of history, they think of countless hours spent poring over a textbook trying desperately to learn the names, dates, places and events that will be covered in their next exam. This is where the problem lies. Instead of teaching history in this manner, we should be teaching students the how and the why of history, not just the who, what, when, and where.
