Learning history: A new approach
To read history as a (his) "story" rather than studying it as a subject might be much more interesting. Unfortunately, history is quite a dull subject for many students. For that, we cannot blame today's educational system; it cannot be any better than it already is. It is left to us students to approach history in a better way. For subjects like World War II, we have to create a pungent feeling in ourselves. This helps us realize what those poor people went through.
The other day, I was reading a short story by Jeffrey Archer titled Colonel Bullfrog which describes the plight of the prisoners of World War II, when a thought came to my mind. If history students were told such (his) stories, how interesting the subject of history would be?
We learn World War II as follows: "concentration camps were formed and people suffered like never before ... and so on and so on. In reality, the prisoners' plight was indescribable. The dead were left unburied. Soldiers knew people had died by looking at the ants coming out of their mouths. Prisoners were going through something far worse than death. Death was a hope. A surcease. It wasn't only the prisoners. Refugees vegetated in their camps waiting for something more uncertain than death: The end of the war. Civilians lived under an aura of fear. The rich became poor, the poor became destitute. But they all felt fortunate compared to those who suffered more. And there was always someone who went through greater hardships.
If we, the next generation, were fully aware of all this and remembered it in our day-to-day lives, a third world war would probably be avoided. History is not just for getting good grades in class. The old saying goes: "If you don't know history, you are doomed to repeat it."
Probably, fifty years from now, our progeny will be studying this history: "Because of the elimination of non-Serbs in Kosovo by Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic, NATO began bombing raids." NATO? Wasn't it Bill Clinton?
Come on! Let us make (her) or (his) stories of history with some spices and side dishes, and make it an interesting subject for students so that history is studied by everybody and given the importance it deserves.
LAXMI RANGANATHAN
Coimbatore, India