Education Isn’t About What You Know
If you’re like me, you’re frequently asked why you do the things you do. Why do you read so much? Why aren’t you on Facebook? Why do you only eat things in even numbers? The answers, in order: books are my best friends, I don’t need Facebook to see my best friends, and part of me thinks that if I eat an odd number the world might end.
While you and my wife may never be quite satisfied with these answers, there is one other question that I often receive, and I’d like to try to provide a slightly more comfortable answer. As some of you know, I studied history and even taught it briefly at the high school level. I and everyone I know who has studied history has had to answer the obvious question from students and parents alike; “Why study history?”
Let me start by saying that this question is a bit insulting. It assumes, before the conversation begins, that history as a subject matter is intrinsically worthless and needs to prove its own value. Never mind that it’s one of the oldest academic disciplines and one that countless scholars have dedicated their life to. If a school tells us we have to study it, many of us assume it’s entirely worthless.
The main reason this question gets asked is because folks don’t see the value in memorizing volumes of names and dates. Most of that information you will always be able to look up, so why commit it to memory? To be honest with you, I agree. Outside of a handful of key figures and general time frames, there isn’t a lot of value in memorizing that information. But if you think that’s what history is, you missed something along the way.
When I was teaching high school history, I was often asked what the point was by students hoping to derail the lesson. I tried to give a complete answer but at the end of the day, I had to get through the chapter. (Answering that question in that setting also puts the teacher in the defensive position and that spells all kinds of trouble. See two paragraphs ago and several of my other articles.) In its simplest form, studying history is about the skills it fosters.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter that you know the exact dates of wars, monarchies, or the names associated with them. You should have a general knowledge and familiarity but unless you’re a history professor, most of that information probably isn’t going to have a big impact on your life. The research, analysis, and investigative skills that are required to properly do history though, those are invaluable.
To be fair, it’s not just history. It’s all disciplines. On his podcast, “Star Talk,” Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson was asked what the one thing he would change about the public’s perception of science would be. His response was that you can’t think of science as a “satchel of facts.” Just because a person is a scientist, doesn’t mean they know every science thing. You have to think of it as a specific and particular set of skills. History. Science. Math. English. Art. These disciplines aren’t about what you know. They are about how you apply what you know.
The school year is ending, and you or the students you know will begin to ask why they’re required to study history or science or math, or simply why education in general. Remember, the measure of education isn’t about what you know, it’s about what you can do.
