History Case
Essay by Paul • September 24, 2012 • Essay • 783 Words (4 Pages) • 1,648 Views
History is part of our life and people tend to over look the importance of it. Many of my classmates say taking history shouldn't be a requirement, but they don't see the importance and what they gain out of it. We as students develop skills from history that some people over look. History should be a requirement for these few reason that have researched and thought of.
In history students develop reading skills from different time periods. We didn't always talk this way, you know. Opening your mind to new uses of language can be a good skill, both in learning foreign languages and for those law students who seem to study archaic versions of wording sentences so that no one can understand them. I have gained better writing skills from my prior history classes. How to not just repeat what someone else said, but to analyze information from multiple sources and come up with your own conclusions. Being able to form your own opinions and effectively argue those opinions with others. Anyone can say "yes" or "no." Most people can't answer "why." For example, anyone can say that aliens have visited Earth before. However, where's the proof? And could that "proof" point to other conclusions? In history class, you will research - primary and secondary sources. You will learn how to determine whether a source is reliable or not, as well as how to find sources within sources. You will learn to pick out different facts from each source and how to cite each of your sources. Yes, history has numbers. There are not many historians out there who will admit to it, but spreadsheets help us in analyzing data as much as they help economists. We look for patterns - in population, in desertions during war, and in environmental factors, to name a few. These patterns help us find out why things happened. So yes, this means in history you'll learn to analysis in quantitative from. In history you also learn qualitative analysation. How do we know that the "facts" of history are facts? Could they just be someone's opinion? If so, how do we find the facts?
There are many benefits to taking history that we don't realize and it was just recently that I noticed these benefits and since then I have enjoyed history more. History helps us understand other people and other societies. Society is shaped by what came before. In order to understand how we have become what we are, and why we differ from others, it's important to look to history. Very few events are truly "global" - and understanding the "non-global" is a key to understanding why I like Barbie but a Middle Eastern nation would ban it. History helps us understand current events. Why was there a war in Iraq? Why did such a regime ever exist? We must look into history - into how religion and politics shaped the Middle East - in order to understand why dictatorships are accepted and why people believe
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