Last year, I decided to pursue my course in teaching. Since I was also a graduate of Business Administration, I was lined up with major in Social Studies by the Philippine Regulation Commission. I have experienced teaching history when I took my on-the-job training as student teacher. I have observed that many students perceive history as a boring subject.
When I was in high school, I like History because I always got the highest grade in our class. I was good in memorization back then. Most history educators tend to focus too much – which is to say, almost exclusively – on memorization of dates, people, places and events. Now that I’m a matured person and a professional teacher,I realized that if we just focus on facts, the actual work of historians – namely interpretation – gets totally obscured. That leads students to not even realize that history is based in critical thinking, not fact-checking.
History is a subject that focuses on the past, but can also give us an insight into the present, and how to deal with circumstances that bear a significant resemblance to those of decades or centuries ago.I believe that there are great lessons to be learned in history. I want my students to understand, intellectually and emotionally, that their present lives are the result of these historical events, events created by imperfect beings very much like themselves. I want all my students to understand that their present is the consequence of those historical events so that they are better prepared to act as conscious historical actors themselves once they leave my classroom.
Isn’t what we do with knowledge more important than the knowledge itself? Personally, it has improved not just my knowledge of the past, but my analysis in general, and has sharpened my opinions about a wide range of subjects. It has given me great ideas on how to cope up and handle different situations in life.
If only students could study in their mind the relevance of history in their lives, with the help of their teacher, I know that this world would be a better place to live in as they would be more careful and responsible for their actions. There are great lessons to be learned from the past, and they ought to learn them so that they don’t exhaust their strength repeating past mistakes and bad choices.
History is a very important subject. History is inspirational. That student may find joy and happiness and peace in the future by learning the great lessons of history is my advocacy to every students.
By: Carmelita F. Cuizon, LPT
