The other day whilst tutoring GCSE History one of my students got frustrated and asked what is the point of learning something that’s already happened? It’s a question that often comes up, and I think that History is one of the hardest subjects to study if you don’t have any interest in.
Why is History important?
If you’re learning modern history (which you probably will be if you’re studying it at GCSE or A-Level) then you’re learning about events that help shape the world as we know it – World War One, World War 2, Women’s suffrage, Civil Rights in America, Cold War – these are just some things that you may learn and are all incredibly relevant now and, personally I’d find it hard to have an opinion about current events without at least some knowledge of Modern History.
In many ways it’s like studying literature – it’s easy to understand the story of a book as you read it, but it takes deeper thought to understand the themes, characters, symbolism and message of a book. Just like it takes deeper thought to understand why something has happened in History or it still effects the world now. Another reason for learning it is important is more from a pragmatic standpoint.
Improvement in writing skills
Studying History will teach you many skills even if you don’t enjoy learning History. It will enhance your essay writing skills because to get a high mark in History you have to know how to properly structure an essay, how to make it a balanced argument and the type of language you should be using. Which you’ll be able to apply to other subjects (at University level most subjects will have graded essays.) Another skill you will learn through History (from A-level) is how to properly source something, not only from a functional standpoint of how to put it into your essay but also how to properly search for a source both online and in a text.
Any University student will tell you is essential to make it through even the first essay you’ve been given. At GCSE level, you will be given sources and be asked to analyse them. This teaches you how to break something down and read between the lines by asking you to look at who produced the source, what type of source it is and if the source is reliable so you can explain what the source shows (e.g. A Nazi propaganda poster depicting a Jewish man with a communist symbol on him is trying to say that the Jews in Germany were communist spies).
I personally didn’t study History further than A-level but I used many of the techniques I learnt in History whilst doing my English Language and Linguistics degree, so even if History is something that you don’t find interesting there are many ways in which it can be useful to you.
by Will H, private home tutor