My Experience That Changed my Thoughts On History Class
Author: admin / Category: EducationI’ve never been an A student in history class but just an average one who would sit down and listen to my professor’s litany and find myself absorbing Colonial Period, Civil War Era, World War II, Cold War and a lot of other significant happenings in the olden times in one sitting. Although looking at such timelines can be a little interesting, I can’t grasp all the info being forced into my brain. For the next two years of my life history class was 60 minutes of daily agony. I didn’t like learning about the holocaust timeline.
That one afternoon changed the whole way I thought about history. Although it was an uneventful day with loads of paper works and readings to accomplish, our professor perhaps came that day with something interesting enough to tickle and challenge our brain cells. “Do you think history repeat itself”? He then asked, yet expectant that his class would respond in usual silence. As one would expect all we gave was a blank stare back at the prof, but at least we looked interested. But it was only then that I began to question myself, “Does history really repeat itself”? I took a look at the russian revolution timeline and saw a pattern, it was eerily similar to that of the french revolution timeline.
Our teacher gave us something to think about. The social issues that we’ve discussed in the former days of our history class up to the latest topics were weaved together for us to come up with our answers. He took one particular example of presidents of the United States of America. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States had been elected for Congress in the year 1846. On the other hand, John F. Kennedy was in Congress in 1946, exactly 100 years after Lincon was elected. These facts do not stop the similarities and likeness of paths these two presidents led. Lincon was elected in 1860 which was close to 100 before John F. When Kennedy took power as the new president it was 1960. Departing on only that fact, those two presidents both were big proponents of Civil rights and were both assassinated during their presidency.
Now, do I think all of these were just mere coincidences and twists of fate? My prof made me look even more scrupulously at past events and do my own in depth analysis. He then asked the question once more, “Class, do you think history repeats itself”? I came with an answer I think will forever be etched in my mind, “History doesn’t repeat itself. There may have some flukes of nature and happenstance in the lives of the two presidents that were parallel with each other, but I strongly believe that it was just a product of human’s ability to over generalize. This compelling information may have been a great controversy in the past that continues to haunt the present, but I’d like to think that coincidences happen all because of people’s imperfection and their susceptibility to commit the same mistakes over again”.
I know I’ve made a point at that moment in my once boring history class. My teacher had a look that immediately told me that I had a valid point that he might agree with. What happened that day sparked a little bit of interest in the subject, and now I see that I’m just a small blip in history.