People benefit from studying history because it repeats itself and gives insight to the future, teaches how the present came to be, explains the importance of individual efforts, shows how to accept others, and exemplifies the power of written and spoken language. History is one of the most fundamental subjects in education for these reasons. A person can train his or her mind and learn how to process information in a sensible way by studying history ("The Benefits of Studying History"). A door to the library of knowledge in the past, present, and future can be opened by studying history. For one reason or another, history is one of the least liked subjects in education, when in fact, it is one of the subjects with the most to offer.

History repeats itself. In George Santayanas book The Life of Reason, he states: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." He is saying if people do not learn from their mistakes or the mistakes of others, they have a high chance of repeating that mistake. One can assume many aspects of events in the future by looking at events of the same type from the past. Of course, the human race does not catch every hint that an event similar to one in the past is going to occur. Two such events are genocide and slavery.

Genocide has been a recurring theme in human history. There were two acts of genocide in the 20th century alone, one being the Holocaust (1933-1945) and the other being the Rwandan genocide (100 days between April and July of 1994). Approximately six million died in the Holocaust and approximately eight hundred thousand to one million died in the Rwandan genocide. There are signs of approaching genocides and ways to handle them that can be learned just by looking at past situations. These genocidal situations always begin with one group of people referring to another as inferior. Without this good reason for the mass murder, the genocide would fail. The lesson the world learned from the Holocaust earlier in the century could have helped prevent the Rwandan genocide, but the world has priorities, and Rwanda was not a priority sadly enough ("Holocaust History", "Rwandan Genocide").

Slavery is another recurring theme in history. For thousands of years, groups of people have been enslaved for one reason or another. They are enslaved because they are prisoners of war, criminals, or believed to be inferior. The European slave trade began in the 1400s in Portugal. Slave ships would depart from Africa and arrive in Portugal for distribution. The slave trade would continue until December 10, 1948, when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which prohibits slavery of any form in its Article 4 ("Slavery Timeline 1901-2003"). People learned slowly but surely that slavery was wrong. With slavery came many benefits, but slowly it gained more disadvantages as it gained more attention and respect was lost for the slaves. In the European, or Trans-Atlantic Slave, trade alone, across a span of a little more than three and a half centuries, at least twelve million men, women, and children were forcibly taken in bondage from their homeland of Africa and dispersed to multiple countries ("The Transatlantic Slave Trade"). This is only one of the many slave trades in history, and it has changed the world in major ways. Without the knowledge of this, a large group of people would never know their ancestry or where their family had come from. People also would not know why the anti-slavery laws are in place, the mistakes or humanity, or the outcome of the mistakes and why they shouldnt be repeated.

History reveals how the present came to be. How did West Virginia become a state? Why was the voting age lowered to 18? Where do family names come from? All of these questions can be answered by studying history. One can find that West Virginia was actually born in the Civil War due to heated feelings between western and eastern Virginia about slavery ("West Virginia Statehood"). They can also find that the voting age was lowered to age eighteen because people thought it was indecent that men could be drafted to war at eighteen but couldnt participate in the politics that controlled the country they were fighting for ("The 26th Amendment"). They could even find their family history and how the wealth of their family came to be. Studying history allows people to learn about these things, receive answers to their questions, and secure their identities.

If only one realization should arrive from the studying of history, it should be that individual efforts add up to a whole. One person can change the world and the rest of its populations lives forever. Adolf Hitler was a German politician who founded and lead the Nazi party. In 1933, he became chancellor of Germany, and a year later in 1934, he became the dictator of Nazi Germany, a position he held until 1945 ("Adolf Hitler: Biography"). Because Hitler and his party had felt the Germans were racially superior to all mankind and that Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, and some Slavic people were considered inferior and a threat to the German community, they ordered these people to be sent to camps to be executed by the masses. Because of his ideals and effort, millions were killed ("Holocaust History"). Those millions of people could have done much for the world and much against it. Those who were involved and their families will be forever changed and their history altered.

One man who avoided Hitlers genocide by renouncing his citizenship in 1933 for political reasons, Albert Einstein, changed the world forever in the way of science and our understanding of the universe and its properties. His theories have propelled the scientific community onwards in progress ("Biography"). He even helped in the development of the first atomic bombs in the Manhattan Project, which killed over a hundred thousand people collectively, not considering the deaths later recorded due to radiation exposure ("The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki"). In conclusion, every person has the ability to change history forever, it only takes effort and the will to do so.

History also teaches the acceptance of others. If someone is provided with the history of another, it gives more of an understanding of that person and the way they act or feel in certain situations. Its an often discussed issue teaching religions in public schools, but the studying of a religion gives an understanding of its followers, traditions, and beliefs. The study of a culture has the same effect. With the studying of religions and cultures, students can break down the stereotypes implanted in their mind and learn how to treat others efficiently and appropriately. This gives a giant boost in the social and business world for these students educated on other religions and cultures. Making history an important subject to study if the person wants to maintain a healthy social and business life. (Kanani 1)

The final reason studying history is important is that it provides skills on interpreting and creating powerful written and spoken language. Throughout history, the way a person expresses their ideas has been the deciding factor on whether those ideas are supported or not, whether they are good or bad. Adolf Hitler used powerful speech to move the hearts and minds of the German people and sway them to his beliefs. His hoarse, grating voice, for all the bombastic, humourless, histrionic content of his speeches, dominated audiences by dint of his tone of impassioned conviction and gift for self-dramatization states a biography of Hitler, explaining just how powerful his ability of spoken language in his speeches really was ("Adolf Hitler: Biography").

An example of powerful written language would be the Bible. Being created from 66 separate books by at least 40 distinct authors, the Bible tells of the creation of the world by God and the arrival of Gods son, Jesus Christ ("History Of The Bible"). The way the book is written can give many different interpretations or meanings to the words and phrases in it. But either way its interpreted, it maintains a certain power to what its saying, making many believe it, although its still just a book with little to no justification to the events taking place in it. Its all in the way writings are worded, how they are presented, and to whom. Learning how people acquired or used powerful written and spoken language in the past can help someone to acquire the skill themselves and spread their ideas more effectively.

In conclusion, studying history gives incredible social skills that are very helpful to possess in this ever progressing world. History is in no way unimportant and should not be ignored inside or outside of the classroom. A person uses history to their advantage everyday and probably doesnt even realize it. These reasons are why history is presented to students as a core class, or important class, to have, because it truly is. History is fundamental to the advancement of a person in our world in the way of finding identity, social and language skills, understanding of others, inner strength, and learning from mistakes. Studying history is a critical part of education and should be considered as so.

---