Karen Harriger is a featured editorialist from Granite Hills' AP English Language and Composition class. She encourages others to be more informed about history.

The United States of America was founded in 1776, under a government based on the ideals of John Locke and the Magna Carta. Where did these ideals come from? They came from history. Without the statement “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” America would not be the nation that we hold so dear today. It would not be a nation where all have equal opportunities, it would not be a nation where all have freedom, it would not be a nation where all have the ability to make something of their lives. The renowned historian David McCullough stated, “History is who we are and why we are the way we are,” (Wisdom Quotes). So, where would America be without the Declaration of Independence? Without the Constitution? Without the Civil War? Without World Wars I and II? Without the Cold War? According to a poll conducted at Granite Hills High School, only 23% of students knew what decade the Civil War occurred. All of these students should have known this question, since, after all, they were supposed to have received that information in their history classes. Someone could say that this is because most students do not like history. But, 44% of Granite Hills students stated that they enjoyed history. Why are these statistics so totally different?

One reason could be the lack of history classes in the middle school and high school levels. Out of these five years, only three and a half are spent in a history-oriented class. Students through this system learn that history is not as important as, say, English or mathematics. In last year’s California Standardized Test results, out of the over 350 sophomores tested in World History at Granite Hills, seventy-eight percent of these students scored basic or below (California Department of Education). Considering that practically half of the students at Granite say they like history, these testing statistics do not fit with the students who enjoy history. So, why aren’t students absorbing the history taught to them in the classroom?

According to several students here at Granite Hills, many lament the fact that their textbooks containing the California Standards lack details about the social aspects of history, such as how ordinary people lived and worked during a certain time period. These students also stated how history in the classroom is at times tedious – too “boring.” Ms. Efseaff, co-chair of the history department at Granite Hills, stated that she always makes an effort to make history interesting and appealing to her students, allowing the mundane words of the “adequate” textbooks to jump off the page and become alive through “attention-grabbing” and even “outrageous” techniques, in order to make history something meaningful and wonderful to the average student. Her students are thus able to enjoy her class, better grasp the material, and have a greater knowledge of history. She also agrees with Granite Hills students, in that the California Standards lack in teaching social history, such as how ordinary people came together to change history through nonviolence, which she tries to sprinkle into her world history and Advanced Placement U.S. History classes. She further stated that she and other teachers at Granite Hills strive to teach their history classes with great accuracy and allow their pupils to understand history’s importance.
Though the textbooks today are “adequate” in teaching the material – at least at a “high school” level – there is still a lack of depth in today’s history books on important events of history. There are few details about historical events, leading some students to sadly put little stock into the curriculum, and thus believe in untruths. Many students have little knowledge of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and, as a result, many think that the “great” Sacajawea actually led the explorers across the American West, when, in reality, she was a Shoshone interpreter for the expedition who helped identify Shoshone territory, interpret for the expedition, and allow them to gain horses from the Shoshone Indians for the trek up the Bitterroot Mountains in the Northwestern United States. Though she was a help the expedition, she was not as major a component of the party as many sadly believe.  Many students do not realize that this is quite false because their textbooks, for the most part, only discuss this famous expedition in just one sentence, with little information for students to realize and understand why the expedition is so important. Student do not realize that Lewis and Clark discovered hundreds of new plants and animals and created maps that helped later settle the west in later years. Also, with this lack of detail, some even begin to doubt the validity of certain events. For example, according to a Roper Organization report, one-fifth of Americans believe that the Holocaust never even occurred. The institute concluded that this was because little material is given about the event and because of the work of history revisionists (The Organization of American Historians).

Revisionists, according to the president of the American Historical Association James McPherson, fall into two categories. One group of revisionists are the “lifeblood of historical scholarship.” He further writes that “the unending quest of historians for understanding the past—that is, "revisionism"—is what makes history vital and meaningful,” (American Historical Association).These sort of revisionists are able to create a clearer and better picture of the past as new evidence is discovered, allowing for new questions and interpretations to be created. The mysteries of the past are able to be solved for the people of the future. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to always be valuable,” (Quote Garden). These revisionists help our society today gain these “morsels” of “genuine history.” However, there are some that work to change history, by twisting actual historical events to suit their own desires. These “revisionists” are called negationists. These negationists deny the actual occurrence of historical events, such as the Jewish Holocaust. The Organization of American Historians states that one negationist, in an effort to reach young people about his beliefs, actually placed ads in college newspapers between 1991 and 1992 asserting that the Holocaust was just a myth. Sadly, negationists are influencing more and more young lives everyday, as textbooks give little information about such important events as World War II or even the American Revolution. Students should be able to realize that history is something that was created by people very similar to them. There were common soldiers who experienced the horrific day at Pearl Harbor; there were ordinary Bostonians whose actions led to the very Revolution that created the United States of America. These names, though unknown to history, made a huge impact on history, one that helped to shape and sculpt the world as we know it today. But, sadly, many students do not realize these wonderful facts about our history. It is forgotten, left unnoticed in the kitchen midden of time. Thus, America is forgetting her history and losing her future.

Some may think, what does it matter that we are forgetting? Should we not be looking forward instead of backward? But, it actually does matter. Dwight D. Eisenhower stated, “neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him,” (Quote Garden). Through history, we have a window to the future. We are allowed to stop another Holocaust from occurring. We are allowed to stop a September 11th from occurring again. Unnecessary wars can be avoided, lives can be saved, and a nation can survive, if we only studied history accurately. By not studying history in depth and by not weeding out the negationists, we are losing sight of where we have come from and where we can go. We are forgetting that medicine has become so improved over the past hundred years that a cure for AIDS is possible. We are forgetting that we can discover more frontiers in space through the determination that pushed our ancestors toward the Pacific Ocean. Hope for a better life and hope that we do not make drastic mistakes can be found in history.

According to Pearl S. Buck, we should face the future by looking toward the past, thus not allowing for history to become America’s forgotten subject (Wisdom Quotes). We should not allow negationists to change the history of our nation and world for purely selfish motives, we should not allow for our children to remain ignorant of their past, we should not allow for our children to live without a future. History gives us not only our future, but also our past. In order to fully teach our children of America’s ideals and values, history should remain a dynamic part of our lives, and our future.