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Not everyone is hardwired to enjoy history, like I'm not hardwired to enjoy or be able to do math.
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I agree 100%. But while a simple calculator can help summing up the bills, looking up the dates in a textbook won't solve any life problem. History is not just a pile of dates and names, I don't even think that the way people lived 2 - 3 centuries ago is the
most useful knowledge history can give (Of course, it's also quite important to know) I strongly believe that the main emphasis (?) should be placed on personalities, characters who created the history. Nowadays our kids learn at most 'what happened when and where' but seldom try to answer the questions: "Why it happened?" and "What kind of person was he/she who made it happen?" The first question teaches to think, to find reasons and consequences. As for the second one, it should give us examples to follow or never to follow. I'm afraid we are starting to lose (to put it mildly) the moral values that have been developing throughout the history. One is driven to believe that any means is justified, as history as a school subject tends to be interested in results, but not in process. From my experience, literature is trying harder in this sphere.
I've read somewhere that such a worrying state of historical knowledge among the young people leads more and more of them to taking up fantasy. It gives them sort of understandable, exciting historical knowkedge
to fill up the gaps in their own background (who cares that it's not real) and also the models for their everyday life. The tree without roots can't stand firmly, and sometimes the roots have to be simply drawn on a piece of paper.