Why Do We Study History?
Mingling – Get used to talking!
• You each have a question on a piece of paper.
• You will pair up!
• Introduce Yourself! And each ask each other the question on your
paper. Answer each other’s questions, but not your own!
• Switch questions after you have each answered each other’s.
• Find someone new, and repeat!
Discussion Questions
• Do you agree with these quotes? Why or why not?
• “History should be studied because it is essential to individuals and to society,
and because it harbors beauty.” – Peter N. Stearns
• “Historical knowledge is no more and no less than carefully and critically
constructed collective memory. As such it can both make us wiser in our public
choices and more richly human in our private lives.” —William H. McNeill
• What is “egotism?” (from the quote by Thomas Jefferson)
• Why can history draw us out of our “egotism?” What does that mean?
• Why might it be important to get out of our own comfort zone?
Discussion Questions
• Do you agree with the five reasons for studying History and Social Studies
that were given on the sheet? Why or why not?
• Which of these do you think is most important?
• Do you have other reasons for thinking we ought to study history and Social
Studies?
• When they say “history must serve as our laboratory” – what does that
mean?
• Why is it important to understand how the world we live in came to be?
• Why might it be important to the “an informed citizen?” What does that
even mean?
• Can you give examples of history that has inspired you?
• Why might it be important to “judge worldly affairs?”