[Bob-san]

One thing I learned in the past 17 years of life is let the more-distant past go!

Go back to bed, America. Do not question the past. Fall in line. Do not trouble yourselves with thought, go drink beer and watch American Gladiators.

No need for these sort of comments Mefustae.

Actually, to balance things out, I thought Mefustae's post was not only reasonable, but insightful.  Whatever your political persuasion, knowing history is better than choosing to ignore it.

(Feel free to flame me if I interpreted things completely out of context; I only read back as far as this post. )

Basically I won't reply to this again, so here's a last time.

What I said was basically know history, don't repeat the bad. Sort of learn from the mistakes--you can't change the past so stop trying so hard. Stop arguing over things and don't tell us to get an opinion on it (I'm looking at you, history classes). Focusing on the present and future will get us much further than remaining fixated on the past.

[Kosh]

What I said was basically know history, don't repeat the bad. Sort of learn from the mistakes

Not everything is so black and white. The entire point of having debates in history class is to teach you how to think critically and review the facts. In the real world this is a useful skill.

[Nuclear1]

History classes ask you to have an opinion for a reason. No matter what political persuasion you subscribe to, when the other side is in power, you and yours can balance them out.

That doesn't mean never alter your beliefs. I went into my college-level government course the most staunch right-wing Bu****e that you'd ever seen. After six months of political debates and research, I was much more moderate. Not liberal, by any means, but open to both sides.

[Bob-san]

What I said was basically know history, don't repeat the bad. Sort of learn from the mistakes

Not everything is so black and white. The entire point of having debates in history class is to teach you how to think critically and review the facts. In the real world this is a useful skill.

I debate current problems and events--I don't want to be saying that the Union or Confederates were right in the Civil War. I don't want to say a candidate was good or bad. President Lincoln bent the constitution and trampled over personal liberties during the Civil War--yet after all his actions impeding on us, he's still constantly ranked in the top 5 of American presidents. My favorite president of the past was Theodore Roosevelt--a progressive who made changes for the common people--the square deal that's just not around anymore. I'll debate the need for a new Square Deal, I won't debate every action of Roosevelt, Taft, and all those other presidents.

Anyways--the biggest problem with history class is that the victor writes the history. Everything is biased on who's right and who's wrong, that I don't like disrespecting those people said to be wrong. To me, that's black and white. The ideas are perfectly debatable--the problem is we don't know all the facts, the motives, the reasons, and the actions that would lead to one thing or another. By the way--I'm at the top of my history class because I know what they want to know and write decent essays. I know more of the history than many stupid Americans aged from 16 to 20--all in a Junior's US History class. Those aged about 18-20 are basically going to drop out if they don't pass this year. They're not doing too well--they put no effort into it.

Anyways--I'm not staunch conservative--I see reasons to be more liberal in the US's politics, though I don't share the view of most. While I'd like to register for a Democratic Socialist party, that's a fast track to getting a file in the FBI.

[Polpolion]

People who hate history classes for that reason are thinking of the class to much of as a history class than as a social studies class. I agree wholly with what Kosh said, and I shall elaborate:

First off, most of the time good vs. bad isn't so clear cut, which is the primary reason we have these debates. Back in US history I had a debate about the US usage of the A-bomb, and there was a lot of debating (albeit most of it was fallacious and moronic, and since time was limited I didn't have enough time to point out all of the fallacies and errors in reasoning) for both sides. Although many people have made up their minds and completely closed it off, it's definitely not clear which was right or not.

In the process of doing this, we not only learn of the motives that lead the people to drop the A bomb among other things. These general thought processes could be used in addition to the ways the public reacted to these things in many different careers, as long as the careers fall in the social/governmental, etc spots.

Now I suppose if your going into something like art or photography on the other hand, you could get away with saying "**** everyone, if no one likes my stuff, I'll call it high brow or avant grade, and then they'll like it anyway" and it doesn't really matter what things were like in the past, or for that matter what the quadratic equation is, or even what a ribosome is. But if your going into a political environment, that's not the same. (Although you couldn't tell in America)

[Goober5000]

President Lincoln bent the constitution and trampled over personal liberties during the Civil War--yet after all his actions impeding on us, he's still constantly ranked in the top 5 of American presidents...

[snip]

...the biggest problem with history class is that the victor writes the history.

There's your explanation.