The Relevance of Studying History PDF

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Summary

Broken all the pieces I've been shaping lately
Focused on the things that didn't make no sense
Guess that growing up was never meant to be easy
Yeah, I got used to doing everything sideways
Didn't really care about how everyone felt
Hiding my emotions down in different ...

Description

Session 1: Understanding the Relevance of Studying History Learning history is just like reading a story. As a matter of fact, the meaning of the word “history” in

Histoire (French)

European languages is story. The words historia (Spanish), histoire (French),

and

gesichte

(German) all mean the same thing - story. Similar

Historia (Spanish)

Gesichte (German)

thing can be said for the word “kasaysayan,” which is the Filipino translation for history. “Kasaysayan” is also a story. However, it is more

story

unique. According to leading Filipino historians such as Zeus Salazar and Ambeth Ocampo, the word “kasaysayan” is richer than its European counterparts. The word kasaysayan is rooted in two words: salaysay and saysay. Salaysay means story, while saysay means meaning. Putting both words together, kasaysayan or history in the Filipino sense means “a narrative about past events that have meaning to a certain group of people in a given time and place.” In simpler terms, it is a story with meaning. The significance of this definition is that history is not about memorizing “Salaysay” = story

forgettable dates, speaking unpronounceable names, locating strange historical places, or

KASAYSAYAN

telling funny trivia. Learning history is not just learning a set of facts about the past. It is about making sense of those facts. Facts

“Saysay” = meaning

comprise only a very small part of history, the bigger part of it is the creation of meaning out of those facts that can be used by the people

in correcting the present and creating a better future. In other words, history is a tool for us learn from the mistakes we made in the past in order for us to create a better future. How do we get salaysay and saysay together? How should we study history or kasaysayan? It is through avoiding the notion that history is just a compilation of facts. For Ocampo, both salaysay and

saysay cannot be separated if we really want to learn history. History with just the story (salaysay) is pointless. What can we do with all our memorized facts about history? It will bring us nowhere. Nevertheless, if we inject meaning (saysay) to these facts, history will give us the lessons we need to...