This article was originally published in the fall issue of LightLines, a publication of Christian Light, Harrisonburg, VA. For a free subscription, email subscribe.lightLines@christianlight.org.
Shipwrecks, Morals, and Questions: The Importance of Teaching History
by Deana Swanson
History is an amazingly important subject to teach for one main reason: it is the only subject that consists mostly of material that we can evaluate, make moral decisions about, and apply to our lives today.
Reading, writing, and math are skill-based. Students learn how to perform a task; they repeat it and get better at it. Science is largely fact-based. Students learn how science works and about how God created the universe and everything in it.
History though, is different. And it has far greater reaching effects. When we teach history, students not only learn facts about what happened in the past, but they can directly apply those facts to what is going on in the news, and more importantly, compare that knowledge with what we know God’s word says about it, and then apply it to our lives today. That’s exciting!
For example, when we study Prohibition, the period of history when the sale and consuming of alcohol was prohibited, we look at the effects of what happened during and after it. We can then discuss how in our own day the sale of marijuana is becoming legal. We can ask questions like “How will that affect our society long-term?” “In what direction is society headed?” “What could happen long term?” “How do you think God feels about that?”
History comes alive when we do this, and it makes a difference to our students because just about everything in the past has some parallel to something that is going on today. History tends to repeat itself: “There is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9b)
Every issue society is dealing with now has happened in the past, just in a different situation or form. It is exciting and interesting to pull those facts out, relate them to now, see what happened back then, which decisions were made, and then apply those to current issues.
History is a study of choices and consequences, good guys and bad guys, super smart decisions and decisions that we can look back on and wonder, why on earth did they do that? And we get to talk about this stuff in history class.
As teachers, we can have in-depth discussions with students and cause them to think. It’s easy to do this if we start with easy concepts such as good vs. bad. Here are a few more examples of questions teachers could ask students in order to get some discussions started.
Sin vs. Righteousness - Was what happened in this period of time (or specific instance) good or bad?
Serve or self? Was this person trying to serve others or was he being selfish?
God or greed? While much of history would be in the “greed” category, there were also people who sacrificed greatly to do what was right in God’s eyes. It’s great to point out those positives.
What does God think about that? What does the Bible say about it? It’s amazing what verses students can recall. These will help start class discussions to answer this question.
Discussing topics such as this can help students to look at situations long-term, and hopefully cause them to think about the next decision they have to make, and what the effects of that decision could be. Every choice has a consequence, and every decision has an effect. Students can see and learn this through history.
It’s also challenging to ask students how things could have turned out differently. What if America had not dropped atomic bombs on Japan? Would the war have ended fairly soon anyway?
History is also full of exciting and true stories that really happened.
Shipwrecks and mutinies
Buried treasure
Lost civilizations
Magnificent buildings
Brave and heroic missionaries
Natural disasters
Epidemics
Incredible feats of engineering
Almost every page of a history book has a fantastic little nugget inside it -- an exciting story waiting to be uncovered. Rather than viewing history as a necessary subject to be covered, we teachers can present it as exciting stories that really happened to real people.
It is also important to view history from a Biblical standpoint. How has God been involved in history? What did He allow? Where did He jump in and save His people? While He did rescue the Hebrews from being slaves in Egypt, He didn’t save the many Jews who perished during the Holocaust. Why not? Could it be that because when Jesus was crucified, it was the Jews who cried out, “Let His blood be upon us and our children”? These are things we can discuss in history class.
It’s okay to wonder about these and discuss them in class even when we teachers don’t have all the answers. Often I am amazed when a student asks a really good question or has a really good answer. It is good for us, and them, to think about and ponder these things. It’s also all right to tell them that we don’t have the answer, but that we will research it or ask someone else about it and give them an answer later.
What about doctrinal issues such as non-resistance or the headcovering? History is a great place to discuss these concepts as well. Have you ever noticed how many ladies throughout history have had their heads covered in some way? Look at all those pictures in the history books. You can point that out to your students and ask them questions about it.
History is a fascinating subject full of true stories. History is an important subject to teach because we can learn from the past and apply it to our current situation or to the future. History gives us opportunities to ask our students questions and make them think. History is truly an important subject that needs to be taught.
In the following issues of Lightlines we will be covering specific stories which have occurred throughout history and giving examples of ways to use these stories in class to keep the students involved. Different projects that can help history come alive for your students will also be presented.