The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.
- Aldous Huxley

We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.
- George Bernard Shaw

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
- George Santayana

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
- Karl Marx


I put it to you that history is one of the most important areas of study, and should be taught as so in all schools.

How else are we to learn from our mistakes?

History keeps on repeating and yet we accept it.

I propose the FOUR r's......

Reading
Writing
'Rithmetic
Record?

Alright, its not perfect, but History should be considered within the same category as English, Maths and Science......its just as important.

History has more lessons to teach us than any other subject because it IS every other subject.

So lets start taking history seriously in the hope that it will be kinder to us in the future. As for me, well i know history will be kind to me because i intend to write it.

Peace.

Before I was forced to leave school (which I loved) I had a history teacher by the name of Mr. Crane. He was old, ugly, mean and spoke in a monotonous voice. I hated history because of him.

Years and years later, I discovered, on my own, how much I missed out on and am still catching up with. So much of "history" has been changed since I was in school, that the history I was taught then, is no longer being taught now.

History was hijacked and replaced with propaganda.

My saying has always been if history repeats itself then why are we always living in the past.
Also another thing I say is history is written by the winners.

sure history is important, but how do you know the history you learn is what actually happened? and that it is not fabricated history or a biased point of view?

History has always been written by the winners. The losers go down in history as the "bad guys" and the winners as the "good guys." when the role of good and bad guys changes, then history is rewritten to make the former "good guys" be terrorists/criminals/monsters and the former "bad guys" be patriotic, fighters of justice, righteous individuals, etc.

So in my opinion, history is important, but it is hard to tell which side of history is actually correct (Cuba goes down as a villain in U.S. history books, and the U.S. is the villain in Cuba. Chile's victory over Peru in the war of the pacific of the 19th century is viewed as a triumph in Chile, while Peruvians see the Chileans of that time as heartless and unfair).

Looking at the past we can certainly learn from it and it can be very interesting.

From my person experience at school history was always a very much a by the book for the exams subject. It could be so much more dynamic.

Getting scholars and researchers to come in and give lectures from an unbiased point of view would be brilliant, plus most of the subjects covered would be fairly cutting edge. Debating more would be good for the kids.

It's an interesting thread this one, really makes me think of what could be possible.

History repeats, forever…

It’s just part of the natural cycle. It’s human nature. We naturally become lazy when the living is easy, and that always leads to tyranny.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a loss of fiscal responsibility, always followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world's great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith,
From spiritual faith to great courage,
From courage to liberty,
From liberty to abundance,
From abundance to selfishness,
From selfishness to complacency,
From complacency to apathy,
From apathy to dependency,
From dependency back again to bondage."

-Alexander Fraser Tytler