The Bee's Nzong Xiong gave us a delightful story Sunday about the History Day competition for Valley students held at Fresno State on Saturday. It was refreshing to read about young people with a sense of history's importance.
Ignorance of history can be fatal to societies. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," is how philosopher George Santayana put it in his oft-misquoted epigram from "Reason in Common Sense," the first volume of his "The Life of Reason."
It's only by studying the past that we can gain even the smallest clues about why things are the way they are in the present. Besides, it's rewarding in other ways, as many of the students found out.
"History can be fun," is how Danielle Crouch from Jackson Elementary School in Selma put it. Couldn't agree more.
and yet,Vic Hansen gets it wrong every week!
Who would you say is getting it right or are you just going emo on us?
ok, ok...cheap shot aside,..i feel strongly about this, everything i know about history, i learned AFTER i left the public school system. in the 50's and 60's the prevailing narrative was one of america as infallible, almost devine, anything else was omitted, or spun. when my kids were taking a.p. courses in the 80's and 90's it was only slightly better. now i ask, "who does this serve"? w/out good objective history, you might, for example, hear people state with authority, such silliness as, "nixon resigned because of watergate" or "lincoln freed the slaves" or " reagan was a 'great communicater' who made you feel good about yourself" "gerald ford helped heal the nation"," clinton was a liberal"...i was at a charter school recently and opened a history book at random and found this,"when marco polo discovered china..." what's emo?
I attended the rehearsals and competition for History Day. My niece participated for Baird. It was pretty cool.Good to see kids so enthusiastic about history and not just the regular stuff.Right now I'm reading U.S.History for Dummies.It's a pretty good mix of traditional with some different takes on things I hadn't personally thought of before.
Emos(according to my nieces) are kids that are emotionally extreme. I've read a lot of VDH,attened a few talks and spoke with him personally a few times.I find his grasp of history and its relevance to today to be sound. I am curious to hear otherwise.
Odd, there was nothing in John's post that even hinted of "emotional extremeness" as far as I could see.
And when you say that Hanson's "grasp of history" and "relevance" to today is "sound," I suspect that what you really mean is that his political views align more or less with yours.
Unless, of course, you've done enough original research in the Peloponesian Wars to evaluate his historical "grasp."
recomended reading; a peoples history of the u.s.,by howard zinn....my point about v.d.h. was that even though the nancy pelosi airplane "demand" story was very recent history, he was lazy, and simply regurgitated fox news spin...i'm certainly no fan of the new speaker, my loyalty is, and will always be,{at the risk of sounding high-minded}, to the truth...i crave facts.
A little off-topic, but I always appreciate Xiong's articles in the Bee. They are always well-written and understandable (no matter what the topic is), and I always learn something from them.
John, thanks for your input on history and VDH, I missed the Pelosi story or non-story.Mike-sounds like you need to lower your bicycle seat.
???
Is that another joke/insult you picked up from your niece?