issue103 以前写过的,思路全忘了..

lindorUID: 2290025

TOPIC: ISSUE103 - "The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives."
WORDS: 444          TIME: 0:44:00          DATE: 2007-2-26

Recently, learning from history is growing concerned in China. While some people put much emphasis on history, others argue that the study of history has value only when it is related to our daily lives. As far as I concerned, this opinion is too narrow to ignore the importance of history in other aspects.

There is no denying the fact that when it is relevant to our daily lives, the study of history is valuable to guide people. What aspects are contented in our daily lives? Perhaps the most common and primary ones are eating, clothing, building and so forth, which are basic needs shared among all humans, including ancestors. If one cast a look back at history, it is possible to identify that ancestors have left us an abundant amount of experiences and skills with respect to these factors. Our ancestors found out that tomato can provide Vitamin C, clothes made by cotton is quite warm, and houses constituted from bricks are strong enough to prevent storm. In short, there are many “diamonds” relevant to our daily lives in history.

While history is useful to help people in daily lives, we should not lose sight of the fact that studying history also act as a mirror for governors to learn how to effectively establish, maintain, and develop a country, a state, or a town. Retracing to the history, where is fulfilled with stories of the rise and fall of countries. Through reflecting every significant scenario, leaders could make more proper decisions and strategies. A case of Germany can illustrate this point. In the world war two, the extreme Chauvinism in Germany leads a disaster not only to the Germans but also to the Jewish and people in other European countries. Nowadays, the government of Germany learnt from the history that chauvinism would be harmful, and thus takes effective measures to restrict the resurgence of Naziism in all of the aspects in society. It is true that history can be used as a vivid lesson for governors to avoid making the same mistakes that happened before.

Additionally, history also plays a significant role in forming the cultural value systems of a certain society. Great philosophers, thinkers and educators in the past contributed a lot profound thoughts and values, which inflict a long-lasting influence on people in the society. Although the living levels of modern people have improved dramatically as well as the technology, the basic value of human remains almost the same. By means of learning from the history, we can strengthen our moral standards, such as respect to every individual and tolerance with different views. In other words, history provides numerous examples to promote values of humanity, which could helpful to enhance the harmony of the society and create better relationships of individuals.

In general, the study of history has value not only in daily lives but also in many other aspects, such as crucial decisions of leaders, society’s value systems. We should cherish history and respect it which walking forward.