But in an entire year how many decisions that you make require any data from the year ? 1854

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
But in an entire year how many decisions that you make require any data from the year ? 1854

Well, in 1854 a doctor in London traced the origin of a cholera outbreak to a single water pump, validating his theory of cholera as a water-borne disease. Modern water supply design continues to leverage his findings in a best effort to curb this disease that still claims 95,000 victims a year.

I understand that this information is available,

And we can teach kids not to drink out of the bird bath, stagnant ditch water,
But

Having them memorize those names and dates or at this point offering it in books for sale is just wasteful.

Now over in sri lanka or Bangladesh that's another story.

But not here
I.m.o.

Well, you did say, "anywhere".

Do you just hate history?

History is kinda cool, some history.

What I find extremely distressing is the fact that our society places huge amounts of importance on the fact that we know everything that happened .

All the names, dates places
And all of the consequences from those events actions and decisions.

We take the time to catalog, examine, cross reference these facts

Most Americans make the conscious decision to NOT apply what they know as fact when going forward,

And making poor judgments by repeating the same mistakes over dailey .

With the same exact bad outcome , or worse.

The bad decision make had to stop at some point.

Learning history is not about memorizing names and dates any more than learning calculus is about memorizing what the numbers look like. It is about learning the why and the consequences. It is about learning respect for what people accomplished and how it has impacted the present day.

If all the student is expected to do is memorize data, it isn't education.

eta: That's one of the big problems with the internet age, especially for kids. Applying information is what has value. People mistake instant access with accomplishment.

History is a roadmap of where we were and how we got here today. History tells us what decisions were made and what happened. If someone has sone familiarity with history they may see parallels in certain events and consider the consequences.

It’s not just names and dates. That’s cheap. It’s simply a snapshot. History is the story in between the dates.