How does history contribute to teaching?

[Elizabeth H]

I have to write a paper on how history contributes to my career/major which is elementary education. I have several ideas, but with it having to be a long paper, I'm trying to come up with other ways it'll be useful in my every day career. Thanks in advance for your ideas!!

[NacMac]

How can you teach without the knowledge of history? There should be loads of ideas --- just think this through. You'll come up with ideas. Maybe give examples from the past generations on how molding young minds - by teaching them the past - has helped.

[Jackie]

Teaching kids about history is giving them invaluable information about how to be a productive member of society in the future.

History is much more than facts and fates. History is about people and how they lived, thought, worked, voted, worshiped, raised families, and contributed to the changes that made their society different from that of their parents. It is not just about presidents, famous generals, and captains of industry.

These people were important of course. But history is also about people like you and me, like out parents and grandparents. It is about all the people--men, women, adults and children, rich and poor. It is about people whose skins are different shades and whose beliefs vary---all these people were history-makers; not a single social movement or political movement happened in society without the participation of masses of individuals.

Why should we bother to learn about the past? Because history helps us understand where we fit into the long stream of time. By studying the world of those who went before us, we gain perspective on our own world--we see better who we are, what we want, what is worth striving for and defending---and what is in need of change. We learn how to tell what is important, how to detect bias, weigh evidence, separate anecdote from analysis and distinguish between fact and conjecture.

With these abilities we are able to change out world in ways that we understand are fitting.

In other words, history is a powerful tool. It empowers us by making us see the importance of becoming active participants in society--in public as well as private ways. If we learn how ordinary individuals were the source of mighty changes, we come to understand our potential for contributing to the process by which the present becomes the future.

[deirdrezz]

History is the complilation of facts and opinions a certain group of people have decided to agree upon at a certain time period.
In other words, it changes.
I teach gifted classes (math and science) with a focus on change. The English language evolves, our view of history and leaders changes, new information is introduced into science, and techniques to teach math are fluid.
Since your skills, beliefs, etc. need to change with the times to help you remain marketable, it is necessary to get that across to the kids from an early age.

[Martha Evans]

I think we base a lot of our actions and decisions on what has happened in past events. We teach our children to look both ways before crossing the road because past events taught us how tragic it can be if we don't do that. Our school teachers taught us about Martin Luther King because of our history of people being oppressed and how wrong it was. Many people are still oppressed, and if we remember history, we can see how it changed things, and we can base historical incidents on what we want to prevent or make better or celebrate as making our society better.

Do a search for "why teach history?"