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Consequences Of Diane Ravitch And T. H. Watkins

Decent Essays

“Humankind has been sustained not merely by its intelligence, but by its capacity to hope.”

In their essays; Why Study History and A Shield Against Fate and It’s Consequences, Diane Ravitch and T.H. Watkins, respectively, each make a case for why history history should be taught, and their arguments can be summarized by the above quote, an excerpt from Watkin’s piece. Where Ravitch focuses on the how it can improve intelligence, Watkins believes the significance of learning history lies in it’s ability to increase hope. They both, however, implicitly state that knowing about the past will make us better prepared to deal with and shape the future.

Ravitch is gunning for knowledge, because “Those who do not know history- their own history and that of their society and other societies and other societies- cannot comment intelligently on the causes of events- cannot understand their own lives nor the changes in in their societies in the the world.” by learning about and understanding these things, students of history, according to Ravitch, develop a critical mind. They can “reject erroneous statements,” and are “resistant to resistant to indoctrination and …show more content…

It is hope, he writes, that brought settlers to North America, that helped the first people avoid freezing in the Ice Age, and helped some survive the Holocaust. In history, Watkins emphasizes, one finds stories of people continuously succeeding in the face of hardship, stories that can help one maintain an optimistic mindset. Hope and optimism, once learned, can be as the essay suggests, “a shield against fate and it’s consequences” and the fuel one needs to keep going into the future, with the belief that everything will turn out

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