Understanding History Better – Reasons to Learn History and Some Easy Ways to Learn!

“The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.”
These famous words by Theodore Roosevelt, says it all about how important it is for us to know the history that we are a part of. Throughout my childhood, I had hated history. The dates, the names and the events always gave me trouble remembering them. I made excuses before my history and civics exams that I had headache or stomach ache and so many more fictitious health problems; though nothing really ever saved me from sitting for the exams.
But, it was during my high school that I actually started quite liking this dreaded subject. I had a project to do on the primitive men and to my utmost wonder, I was quite intrigued by the sheer interesting facts and stories that I came across during my project!
How history helps us?
Though many students simply fear the very term history, history can actually be one of the most interesting subjects that a student ever comes across. No difficult equations, no formulas to remember and no rules to follow – history is simply stories of the past that every single individual must know. Knowing the history is helpful and necessary in a number of ways. Here are a few of them.

1. It helps in understanding people and societies:

History is an experience of the earlier times – a documentation of the things, people, society, their behaviour and their culture; providing evidences of things that had actually happened in the past! It is knowledge of this history that helps us to understand how society has gone through a change and how ‘Change’ is a constant.

1. Moral understanding:

Teachers, often take references from history to teach students about ethics, morality; things they should do, people they should follow and also things that they shouldn’t do. The knowledge about famous people and their deeds, as well as ordinary people and their great involvement in making history, helps students develop a deep sense of morality.

1. To become a good citizen:

Stories of the patriots and how they had sacrificed their lives for the country can grow a sense of good citizenship. This is a must for every child or student to learn about from a very young and tender age, so that they learn the values of being a good citizen.

1. Know your identity:

History tells about people, their races and the geographical areas that they belong to and how they evolved through the ages to finally become the modern men. Who doesn’t want to know about his or her past? Who doesn’t want to know his or her identity? Where your forefathers had actually come from, can be answered by, the help of historical facts.
How to study history to understand it better?
This is a very serious section of discussion. Most people are afraid of history. The reason behind this is students do not find any interest in studying history and they run after memorizing. But, this is a subject that isn’t supposed to be memorized. If you learn this with interest, if you forget about the examinations and tests and homework burdens, you will be able to enjoy history as interesting stories of the past.
Here are a few tips to learn history better.

1. Develop ideas:

This is a great way to learn history. Rather than memorizing what is written in a book, you need to develop ideas on your own. History is always chronological. Hence, when you learn it, try and understand what happened after an event and then what happened next. Relate the ages and forget about the specific dates for the time being and focus more on the story and outcome.

1. Flash cards and mind-maps:

You can always create a mind-map and then, make flash cards to remember the important dates. This helps in keeping the key facts noted behind the flashcards. Thus, when you read the flashcards, you will be able to relate the entire story, before and after, to the specific date or event.

1. Watch history movies:

Nowadays, there students can take the benefit of the history movies easily. They can watch them online, so that whenever there is a need to relate a story, they can go online and watch the video clip or movie. Not just the movies, the documentaries are equally good to remember history and their events.  There are many documentary makers, who are really skilled and they use a really intriguing story telling with as much details as possible. This can be quite helpful for students.

1. Take help from professionals:

When you face real trouble with a certain chapter of history, you can take help from online professional academicians. They help you solve homework, make projects and assignments. Their projects are –

• Detailed with information
• To the point presentation that helps in understanding the chapter
• Cleared doubts
• Use of images, diagrams and charts to help you relate better.

Thus, professional help can be of great help. By using the help of these professional websites you can also get to know the “10 good study habits to help your child to be successful in academics.”

1. Take notes in class:

As a chapter is being taught in class, you can take notes while listening to a lecture. This will help you to recapitulate the chapter while studying at home. You will be able to remember your chapters better.
Understanding history can be easy if you follow these tips. Always remember, history should be understood and learned with interest. It is not a subject to memorize.