Trip To Washington D.C
What if no one in the world ever learned about the past? How important is understanding history in our lives? I never had an answer to these questions until eleventh grade when I went on a school trip to Washington D.C with the purpose of visiting the National Museum of African American history and culture. The trip was selective and I was chosen to attend as I was not only a student who consistently got high grades on my assignments, but because I also had a great interest in going to Washington D.C in order to see the historic monuments. I felt thrilled to be one of the of the few students to have been chosen out of the many students in my grade as it meant that the work I had put into class was one of the very
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Before seeing the national museum of African American history and culture my group was able to see many of the other important sites while in Washington D.C. One of these sites was the World War II memorial that recognizes those who served, honors those who fought, and fell to restore freedom around the globe. This change the course of history. One of the most important things a person can do is to understand the importance of history by understanding what happened in the past and how those events still affect their daily lives. Later, the national museum of African American history and culture was also a very amazing and enriching experience. To learn the history of the United States of America was very important to me due to it being the history of our nation and is still very relevant today as it still influences the ideas, politics, and conflicts that rise today. The trip to Washington D.C taught me the importance of learning about the past on account of it always affecting our lives. I myself have needed to learn from my past in order to improve for the future. At the start of my high school career, I procrastinated a great deal as I would wait till the last moment to hand in an assignment which would mean it never got any feedback and was of low quality or simply
History class in itself has a specific purpose which seems to be frequently forgotten. We learn about violent and horrible events in our past, as well as life- changing and positively impacting ones. From the negative events, we learn what went wrong and how to prevent similar tragedies from happening. From the positive, we gather knowledge and comprehension of the basis of our modern society. We are a self- repairing race, analyzing every flaw and figuring out what caused it. It's an ancient practice, trial and error is human nature.
My trip to the “National Museum of African American History and Culture”, gave me the opportunity to absorb the hardships and rigors African Americans experienced during difficult ages. I learned, in more detail, about the people who made an impact on the African American movement. For example, before the trip, I thought Ben Carson was merely an important figure and didn’t have a clear understanding of what his contribution was. In the Community Galleries, I discovered that Ben Carson that is known for being a distinguished neurosurgeon and for successfully separating conjoined twins. His accomplishments link to my goals of becoming a physical therapist because he was able to defy odds with immense dedication.
Never was I taught my ancestor’s side of the story until high school. Never have I heard of the Joseon Dynasty, Kublai Khan, or Qin Shi Huang, the history that was my forefather’s life. I always knew Columbus’s achievements as the discoverer of America, but I was not taught his abhorrent treatment to the Native Americans. I was told about the British royal family founded by Alfred the Great, but they never mentioned about the Japanese emperor. I was forced to memorize the facts from a Western-based history textbook, but never have they told me to remember even one date of the Vietnamese, Indian, Chinese, or Japanese history.
American cities range in size from extremely large to small town USA. They exist from coast to coast and vary in popularity, population, and prosperity. Some of them are so little known that only their inhabitants and those who reside in close proximately know of them. Others, however, are known world-wide, and their names are synonymous with greatness. Washington, D.C., the city that was non-existent until it became a nation in 1789, has risen to become our nation’s capital and a hub for political activity.
In the essay Haunted America, Patricia Nelson Limerick ponders whether or not there is any benefit for society to have historical knowledge. Limerick contradicts herself numerous times in her opinion on the usefulness of history. She implies that there are many lessons that can be learned from history. However, Limerick is disappointed in the human race because it fails to learn from the mistakes of others. She therefore wonders, "What do we gain besides a revival and restoration of the misery?" (Limerick, 473). Based on Limerick's examination of people and history, one can conclude that objectively history is useless, however, theoretically, people would be much better off if they learned from the lessons that the past presents.
People can learn a lot of things from the past. As time go though the past gives us a lesson to learn. History is one of the important element that taught and inspire people to do great thing compare to the past. History taught us beliefs, values, and different traditions of a culture, even architecture had an influence by the past project. From the very beginning of architecture, people started to build a little tent using branch and stone. After that people start to build column to support the building. One of the examples that has shown the architecture had learn from the past is the acropolis of Athens and the white house at Washington D.C.
The Lesson Plans section is a handy tool for educators with contextual essays, activities on photographs, objects, and quotations. Lesson plan recommendation is 7-12th grade. This site is full of interesting information. AS you navigate there is a section called Member Profiles this page shows you all the past and present Black Members of Congress. For me I did not know that this many black people has represented America in Congress, so wonderful. This web site links to other educational history sites for public reviewing. The study of History is so one can learn about past human behavior, and it will always be timely and relevant to the intellectual growth and development of each
I think the past will always be extremely relevant. Life is full of billions of possibilities and it’s hard to make choices sometimes, by knowing even a little bit about the past, you’re much more likely to end up where you want to be. You can draw on situations in the past to help you make decisions about situations in the present. Yes, there are a lot of things that are extremely different now, but there have always been times in history where things had just become extremely different. When fire was discovered, when soap was invented, when electricity was discovered, when the telephone was invented, indoor plumbing, cars, computers, theory of
History enables people to discover their own place in the stories of their families, communities, and nation. History shows strength in countries and guides approaches in life. As citizens learn more about history, critical skill develop throughout that process. Its very important to know a type of history to have a sense of independent thinking and to understand cultural heritage. Learning about history brings discussions about debatable issues, and having a better understanding of the challenges the nation could be facing. Without historical leaders, leadership skills wouldn't be as strong as they are today, learning apart of history inspires local and global leaders, giving role models for the type of leaders that deal with difficult challenges in their community, nation and even the globe world. Without the preservation of our histories, future citizens will have no grounding in what it means to be an American
“I don’t understand why I have to take this class. All that old history stuff has no relevance to my life, and it is a waste of time to fool with it. My life today is more important than the lives of all those dead and boring people.” This remark is said more frequently than we realize. History is a combination of events that created our present and future today. The past it what simply gives our present it’s value. Another way to look at history is it can be compared to our ancestry line. Without our ancestors we wouldn’t have the make-up of genes that we do today. For example, the Columbian exchange is one of the events in history that has really impacted our world. Not only did one change come from the event but a variety including food, plants, animals, goods and knowledge. History also exposes knowledge to us. It is the resource that allows us to better our lives and expand our knowledge. Believe it or not, our life we peruse everyday consist of history. Including languages, we inherited, religions that weren’t just created on the spot, technologies that have been upgraded in the past years, and the clothing we decided to put on our backs everyday that has evolved from different materials to different fittings. The world has evolved in many ways in the past and it continues to evolve.
The museum that I decided to visit was the California African American museum, located in the Exposition park by the Coliseum and USC school. I knew that by visiting this museum, I would learn more about African American culture and lifestyle, which I thought it would be interesting to learn about another culture. What, I expected to see there was African American’s art creation, music, maybe see a few things about their old lifestyle, and the difficulty they once had to face. To be honest, I don't really know much about African Americans history nor culture, besides the way they were treated it due to racism. And how Martin Luther king Jr fought for their civil rights, by doing anti-segregation protests and delivers his famous speech I Have
Starting with victory in their Revolution, there were many proposals to build a monument to Washington. After his death, Congress authorized a suitable memorial in the national capital, but the decision was reversed when the Republicans took control of Congress in 1801. The Republicans were dismayed that Washington had become the symbol of the Federalist Party; furthermore, the values of Republicanism seemed hostile to the idea of building monuments to powerful men.[200] Further political squabbling, along with the North-South division on the Civil War, blocked the completion of the Washington Monument until the late 19th century. By that time, Washington had the image of a national hero who could be celebrated by both North and South, and memorials to him were no longer controversial.[201] Predating the obelisk on the National Mall by several decades, the first public memorial to Washington was built by the citizens of Boonsboro, Maryland, in 1827.[202]
All histories are an important subject to teach in every academic levels; however, African American history is a vital part of the United States. America would not be the country she is today without the accomplishments of the slaves and founding African American scholars. Slavery brought about incredible trials and established perseverance with the African American population that future generations need to know about and learn from. History teaches us our errors and our successes; furthermore, it helps us determine our future directions. Throughout history there were countless African American leaders, Godly examples and heroes. It is the duty of all generations to teach about these men and women. There is a wealth of knowledge that all people, in all walks of life, and at all ages needs to learn. No matter what race a child is today, they need to know and understand what their ancestors went through, how they lived, more importantly what they did to not only survive but to thrive (Holt & Brown, 2000).
Ever since I was in high school I’ve always wanted to take an African American studies class. The main reason is because learning basic history always bored me and the only thing that was the most positive we learned that applied to black people were about MLK’s “I had a dream” speech and Rosa Parks not giving up her seat and the reactions they received from the black community. The bad outweighed the good when it came to talking about African Americans in history.There were always topics about cruel treatment of African Americans during slavery and during the Civil Rights movement. History teachers always left out the positive side to how black people always came together to have their voices heard. I always had to do my own research to further
To know the past is to know the future. In his essay Knowing History and Knowing Who We Are, David McCullough argues about the importance of studying and teaching history. In his essay, he explains that there are three main points about history: character and its effect upon destiny, our failure of teaching the future generation, and the importance of learning and listening to history. David McCullough strongly advocates that audience should start to listen to and teach about the past in order to learn about the way a person’s character can affect their destiny.