While we all can agree that learning to read and write, and basic Mathematics, are essential subjects to be taught in school or at home, there are other subjects which should also be considered essential.
One of those is History! Yes, while most of us are made to believe that history is not an important subject to be taught in schools, and many schools make it optional or a minor subject, I strongly disagree. From history we can learn what is not successful, and what has been successful!. This includes such things as peace and war, economic systems such as communism, socialism as opposed to free market societies, religious freedom and intolerance, discrimination and oppression. I am not debating the different theories, but actually studying which of these worked well in the past, and which were not successful. History!
Some of the top business schools actually practice this a lot. They call it case studies, where companies are being studied to see what they did successfully, and what they could have done better.
One subject that should be studied from a historical perspective is Socialism. Did you know that only one in four people in the USA knows the definition of Socialism? Major dictionaries define Socialism as “An economic and political theory in which there is no private property, and in which the means of production and distribution of goods are controlled by the state”. In this regard it is not much different than communism. Even Russia used to be called the USSR, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The historical study of Russia shows that for 70 years, Russia maintained a socialist economic and political system, while the West pursued a free market system! Eventually, after 70 years, Russia gave up on the idea, as well as most of its 14 satellite republics, and the east block countries such as East Germany, Hungary, Poland etc. Yet there is a big push in the West by many politicians to pursue Socialism. Study History and we learn that history proves it doesn’t work. When former Socialist countries gave up on the idea in favor of a free market system, there was no violent revolution, no struggle, no war to maintain socialism. That is how badly its people had become disillusioned with the concept.
One problem that Russia has to live with, is that it never apologized to its people, and the countries it controlled, for having insisted on an economic and political system that didn’t work so well! Those satellite countries remember this very well, and of course don’t want that ever to happen again. Any sign from Russia to want to excert power over those countries again, can and has resulted in war!
What else can we learn from History?
Let us know which historical subjects you think are of such importance that they should be taught in school!