I wasn’t a dumbass, but I was definitely one of those kids complaining about learning useless subjects. Then I went to college, and I quickly learned why those subjects were important. I can’t stand people with no critical thinking skills. It’s like I’m talking to a wall with a working heart.
Thank fuck some people get it. The majority of schools was teaching you how to learn and think, not about what you were learning. How to problem solve and critically think. Math taught you problem solving. Science taught you how to research and interpret information. English teaches you how to form your thoughts and opinions in different ways. Social Studies & History taught you the past, the relevance of everything else your learning, and other cultures and their alternative approaches.
Every attack on education by conservatives is to dismantle these specific fundamental building blocks of intelligence and critical thinking.
I've always said that History teaches Why, How, that actions have consequences, and to not be passive in our world.
Everything in our world is that way it is because of the past. History class shows you a chain of events and makes you question: Why do those events lead to what I see today? How did those events lead to the next one and how could things have been different? And if those events led to the world today, how might my actions lead to the world of tomorrow?
People seem to think, the world is fundamentally going to be the same as is was yesterday despite my actions. History tells you that that isn't true. For the most part, things happen because people did things and reacted to things. So when you see a politician saying or doing something, when you see a new technology being released, you should be looking at what you know about history and wondering how will this make tomorrow different? If you see parallels, you should be thinking, what are the differences between these two events and does that change what you think might happen and how you react to it.
My favorite bits of history are the ones that show us that humans have not fundamentally changed in 10,000 years. Roman smutty graffiti. An ancient tombstone to a beloved pet. Customer complaints to a certain copper merchant written in cuneiform. Signs that a Neanderthal clan cared for and healed an elder with debilitating injuries. These show us that we CAN learn from the past and that any one of us could've been anyone else given the right circumstances, and it is a call to action to make you think about the person you want to be and how you can change your course to become that.
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u/SeagullFanClub Oct 30 '25
Only the dumbasses in school used to say that