Why Is History a Required Subject?

My daughter Mara has been asking for Susan Wise Bauer's The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 3: Early Modern Times
ever since she finished volume 2. So Santa brought her volume 3 and The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 4: The Modern Age: From Victoria's Empire to the End of the USSR
for Christmas. She's devouring them, and thought that she got better presents than her sisters who got stereos and MP3 players. At last check, she was reading about the great fire of London, and commenting the need for building codes. (That discussion is food for another post...)

I am also very much into history. I have two complete bookcases filled with history and biography, including a complete set of Will Durrants The Story of Civilization and Britanica's 18 Volume The Annals of America and 2 volume Great Issues in American Life (Volumes 1 - 18 and two volume Conspectus)

In that context, last night Amy and I were listening to Showtunes Saturday Night. Laura played "Wonderful" from the musical Wicked near the end of the show. There's a section of the lyric that caught my attention:

WIZARD(spoken) See - I never had a family of my own. So, I guess I just - wanted
to give the citizens of Oz everything.

ELPHABA(spoken) So you lied to them.

WIZARD(spoken) Elphaba, where I'm from, we believe all sorts of things that aren't true. We call it - "history."
(sung) A man's called a traitor -
or liberator
A rich man's a thief -
or philanthropist
Is one a crusader -
or ruthless invader?
It's all in which label
Is able to persist
There are
precious few at ease
With moral ambiguities
So we act as though they don't
exist

That got me thinking about what is taught as "History" in our schools and the
purpose it serves. When we teach that someone like Thomas Jefferson was a great political leader and philosopher, put him on a pedestal and revere him as a near god, are were really teaching the lessons of History to prevent making the same mistakes our forebears made, or are we indoctrinating our children to believe in a set of previously decided political ideals? And I have to ask if the political ideals that are being taught are the same ideals that Jefferson adhered to.

Don't we need to teach our children about the foibles of men like Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln and so on? I use Jefferson as an example because there were so many things he did that, when viewed with a critical eye, cause me to scratch my head. The Embargo act that nearly bankrupted the fledgling American Economy; his misreading of the French Revolution that nearly got us back into war with England; the Louisiana Purchase that wrecked the doctrine of strict interpretation of the Constitution (an ideal that Jefferson held close until it became expedient to toss it away). From a personal standpoint, Jefferson couldn't manage his money and died bankrupt, owing more than $200,000 (in 1826 dollars) after his estate was liquidated; I shudder to think what he would have done with a credit card! And then there's the question of his progeny with Sally Hemmings.

But more importantly, shouldn't our history curriculum teach our children to critically examine the events of history to find the lessons that can be applied to the present? If we examine the Embargo and Jefferson's strict stance on neutrality, we can see where the need to further commerce trumps the need to stay neutral in "foreign entanglements." Understanding how he misread the French revolution should inform us of the arrogance of trying to export American political ideals; and the Louisiana Purchase should bring the point home that no matter how well crafted a Constitution may be, government will always find a way to circumvent its guarantees and promises.

Don't mistake my purpose here. I think the founding fathers were great men, and I think the great experiment of the American republic was a wonderful development in the history of the world. And I love my country... But the learning of history needs to be more than an indoctrination into the "politically-correct" idealism of the current ruling elite, or it serves no purpose other than to create a class of drones that work at the bidding of the elite classes. I think a lot of religious history falls into this practice as well (and it doesn't matter which religion we're talking about.) I wonder if Hitler would have been such a menace if Germany hadn't taught dogmatic history in the first part of the 20th Century.

Food for thought....