History lessons

My 14 year old son complained that his history lessons at school consist mainly of memorization and that he is not able to use his intellect as he does in subjects like mathematics and science. I told him that if he just focuses on regurgitating what he has been fed, that would indeed be very boring. He can make it interesting by asking “why” and turning memorization into reasoning. Examples:

• Who started the Age of Exploration? Portugal and Spain. Why?
• Where did the Industrial Revolution begin? Great Britain. Why?

Another aim of history lessons in school is to instill pride in the past of the society you live in and tell you who your friends and enemies are. This is often achieved at the cost of oversimplifying the storyline and ignoring inconvenient facts. You might feel proud in the short term, but as your intellect develops, you may realize that you were not told the whole truth and feel a sense of betrayal.

The simplest antidote is to copy the official narrative into an AI and ask it to criticize it. Ask it to check the important claims against primary sources and historians with different perspectives. If you want to go further, here are some excellent books:

• Guns, Germs, and Steel
• History Lessons: How Textbooks Around The World Portray U.S. History
• The Fall of the Ottomans
• How The World Works

Music: Prince - The Most Beautiful Girl In the World