April 22, 1999

History

I saw an interesting sight today. Recently, in my class on British Literature, we covered World War I poets, and much to the chagrin and surprise of my classmates, they knew little about the happenings of the Great War. Being a history buff with a rat-trap mind, I know enough to give a fair description of most of it, but most were hard-pressed to answer even which royal dignitary's assassination triggered the entire event? (Archduke Ferdinand). Faced with this lack, the class did not do as I would have expected and not care. Miraculously, they clamored to learn more.

This does not seem like much, except for the ringing notion in the back of my mind of all those students in high school who complained that history was pointless. Such people wearily trudged through these impotent classes and upon graduation, they recalled enough to earn maybe $300 on Jeopardy in a history category. There was no need for them to learn, so they cared not.

However, today's situation was different. History had a point to my classmates. They needed it to understand the poets better. They wanted to learn. Necessity made the difference.

As I sat back and watched minds eagerly collecting new trivia, I wondered how much all my favorite history teachers would have relished to be in front of the class at the moment.