Sunday, September 23, 2007

History

My husband and I are quite the history buffs, he more so than me because History was his major in college. I didn't quite get that far, but as a child I was interested in historical facts, things, people etc. I went through different phases, focusing on different eras from the antebellum/Civil War period, to the free loving 60's, to the Jazz Age, back to Revolutionary times, and now to what has been termed the "Greatest Generation".

To that end, I tuned in tonight to view Ken Burns, "The War". History is important and if we don't learn from our mistakes we are bound to repeat them (Hello... President Bush are you listening? Irag? Viet-Nam?)

Sorry, I digress. I feel it's my responsibility to aid in my children's education by exposing them to media outlets that will teach them about our history as a nation, and as a culture. So, I allowed them to watch the documentary with me this evening. Afterwards I thought that maybe I shouldn't have becuase there were a few images that could be described as disturbing, but they're to the age that I thought they would somewhat understand the violence of war and if they didn't have that understanding beforehand, maybe now they do. Equally disturbing to me were the images of segregated troops. I made a point to my children to notice the pictures of the all black troops. It is so hard to comprehend the division of people because of skin color and I suppose that should be considered a good thing.

Shelby informed me later that she didn't really want to watch anymore of it because it was depressing. Tad, meanwhile, is cheering on the American troops and is excited about the next night, which we will probably miss because of a prior engagement. Hopefully, I'll get to watch more of it and if anyone has the chance to get a glimpse of it, I highly recommend The War by Ken Burns.

3 comments:

Art said...

I wish I could have seen it. Burns' projects are always good. And I agree that the kids need to be exposed to history. My parents made me watch Roots when it was first aired. I didn't want to but I realize now that it impressed on me the mistakes of our history.

Anonymous said...

Oh, drats. I meant to watch it last night and FORGOT.

Interestingly, history was my worst subject in school and college, but I love all things historical. Maybe it's a book-learning vs. real-life thing...I dunno. Or maybe it was that 127-year-old woman who taught my HS history class.

Shionge said...

I aced in my history and till now I still enjoy watching documentaries and also autobiography :D