Believe it or not, this is a serious post prompted by Harry Potter. Two things came together at once.
First, there's the complaining I've seen before about how the History of Magic classes are structured - long, tedious, boring lectures. Essays? Well, if you can call "Witch Burnings were Completely Pointless" an essay.... Notice that it doesn't begin to observe the other side's view - burnings of witches were a good way to get property, intimidate the populace, and keep good control over the more dangerous parts of society, like little old ladies. (Yes, this remark is meant to be flippant.)
Then there's this old comment that mentions the horrors of public education's history classes.Why do students traditionally have to memorize long lists of dates and names without knowing reasons? Why did I repeatedly get taught that inane story about Arch-Duke Ferdinand and his wife instead of learning about why the assassins were angry at him?
I have only theories, but they seem solid to me. Mind, I'm paranoid...
There's people in this world who want us to be ignorant of the past. They don't want us to think about history, to understand the other side - or even our own side! They want us to believe that we always made the right choices because we were right, whoever we were. The remaining groups of people argue so much over what to teach that it's simpler to stick to solid facts like dates than meatier questions of reasons and ethics and choices. And, as a plus, it makes the subject of history so
boring that students are unlikely to learn more on their own. Despite claims to the contrary, a lot of good business is made by people being ignorant. That's how people get elected, sell their products, and generally get rich - they trust that the population won't know enough to see they're being fooled.
More than that, people who think of history as boring, and don't think of reasons in history may (completely unverified opinion!) be more likely to think of current events as boring - and not learn about them, enforcing their own ignorance.
It's a conspiracy, I tell you, a bona fide (that's fee-day!) conspiracy.
*nods*
Well. Maybe not. But I like to think that sometimes. It's better than the alternative, which is that our school systems suck because they
do.
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