The Hidden Truth of History

In middle school we had the coolest history teacher. Every year he did and an archaeological dig with his students. Behind the school in the wooded area he would bury different items that had historical significance with ties to certain periods of history he would teach his class.

We walked out to the back of the school with shovels and digged for artifacts. I'm a kinesthetic learner so his style of teaching was right up my alley. Sitting in uncomfortable chairs behind little desks and staring at someone lecturing out of books all day long has a way of lulling a person into a stupor.

Our history teacher knew what he was doing. I want to say his name was Dr. Culbertson, but it's been 40 years since I graduated high school and I really cannot remember for sure which teacher had this energy.

All I remember was digging in the dirt, sometimes even mud, and pulling out these artifacts. If anything could have made me want to be an archaeologist, this type of learning might have done it.

It amazes me that when we're young we really don't put a lot of thinking into the past or how it connects to the present or the future.

Fast forward to 2020 and the sudden toppling of historical statues around the world. The importance of History has resurfaced as people argue for and against the destruction of these memorials. Does every statue have to be of a completely perfect human being in order to remain an undamaged statue?

I suppose if we want to look into the history of every single statue in the world we could find some kind of skeleton in the closet of that person and justify removing their memory.

Hitler wrote Mein Kampf. I think few people will argue that Hitler was a good man. Should we remove his book from all libraries? Should we bury it in history and say that no one should read that book because he has nothing good to say? Or is that biography a testament of one person and how they changed history for the a whole world?

I honestly was never a big history buff but I was fascinated with psychology and I went through a period of reading up on many serial killers at 14 or 15 years of age.

Whether it's autobiographical history or our nation or world history or Biblical history I feel that we have a right to go through all of the knowledge available and make our own conclusions.

Civilizations have gone through great effort to preserve their own histories, their leaders and their national victories as well as their defeats.

I pray that we continue to have the freedom to choose the knowledge that we would like to peruse and that we would preserve as much of our history as we can because it's vital that we don't repeat the most dire mistakes.

Maybe history wouldn't have to repeat itself if we listened once in awhile.

Wynne McLaughlin

SRC

This is my five
minute freewrite using prompt digging.

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