What is history if not a lesson for those willing to listen?
A piece of wisdom for those seeking answers?
Learning history can be done in two different approaches: passively or actively.
The passive approach would have you learning history and regurgitating useless information to anyone. There’s no meaning behind the words you say, resulting in everyone treating you like a spectacle.
The active approach involves learning history and using specific information to advance your goals. You don’t just learn to satisfy your wonder, but also help understand your place in the world. You see history as a tool that could be wielded dangerously if it were ever handed to the wrong people, so it’s your duty to protect it from wrongdoers.
To learn history is to form your identity— to establish your role within a larger story.
But most importantly, learning history would just be the first step.
Those who have changed the course of history often discovered that they are already part of history; that one should not only absorb but contribute to what they absorbed.
In other words, a give-and-take relationship develops out of a desire to get up and do something.
Many children, when they reach the age of maturity, struggle to find their place in the world, confusing passion for purpose.
If only they took a step back to observe where they are and what they could do, starting with their community.
Because the child who focuses on developing those around him is the child who unknowingly changes the course of history.