Overlooking the Past by Brenna

Overlooking the Past by Brenna - November 2021 Scholarship Essay

History, an often overlooked subject in many high schools including my own, is almost never taken seriously, and students rarely retain any of the information from the classes even though the subject can be extremely useful. History should be emphasized in school for many benefits: understanding the past, understanding the present, knowing more about one’s own life, and developing necessary skills.
Understanding the past is crucial to life because if we do not, we are doomed to repeat it. Learning from the past can allow us to better our society and cultures to prevent the same issues from occurring. When we learn about past problems in history, such as genocides, we can prevent them by looking at what caused them and taking action before it occurs again. Preventing issues from occurring again is essential to advancing life as we know it.
History classes are crucial to understanding issues that are occurring in the present day or possibly in the future. By learning about what has happened in the past, we can come up with new solutions to problems by changing what did not work in the past or preventing further issues. For example, before 9/11, airport security was limited, but in order to prevent something similar from happening again, we have set up better security measures in our airports. If we do not use the past to understand the present and what needs to be done to prevent issues in the future, we will never advance as a society and will continue to have the same problems.
When learning history, we can attribute what we have learned to ourselves in the present day. We learn where we have come from and how society has gotten to where it is. We also have learned about our culture and others to better understand people. Better understanding yourself and where you come from is important. Along with understanding yourself, you should understand how society has gotten to where it is now in order to be a better citizen, when voting or being involved in other ways; making informed decisions is important.
History classes can benefit students for future school or jobs because of the skills it teaches you. In these classes, students learn reading and writing skills, interpretation and analysis skills, and critical thinking skills. All of these skills are necessary for other classes, future education, and potential jobs. People who have better skills are more likely to be successful.
History is an often lacking subject in school and deserves more emphasis. The classes have so many benefits not only during school but in the future with potential jobs or further education. Having more emphasis on these classes can promote better students and steer them in the right direction to better society in the future.