Essay - Learning About The Past Has Value For Living In The Present

Learning About The Past Has Value For Living In The Present

Si Yeon

  I agree that learning about the past has value for those of us living in the present. I have three good reasons to support my thought. The first is that our history repeats every time. The second one is that we have to protect our traditions. The third one is that history influences us a lot.

  First, if we make history lists, we can see some patterns. For example, Korea had 11 big eras, (Gojoseon, Silla, Goguryeo, Baekje, Gaya, Unified Silla, Bohai, and Shin (new) Goguryeo, Shin (new) Baekje, Goryeo, and Joseon) and they collapsed in the same patterns. The establishment corrupted, and split inside. Even though ages change, people will not change. There is a song with the lyrics, “Humanity's greed does not end, and repeats the same mistakes.” It seems a little bit funny, but if you study history, you will realize that it is not a joke.

  Second, we have to protect our traditions. Korea developed fast. We’ve already destroyed many traditions. I think just learning about Korea’s history and remembering it could be one way to protect traditions. There are many traditions. There are the traditions that we can see with our eyes, but there are some traditions that we can’t see. We cannot see Hangeul really, but we think that is our tradition.

Third, history influences us a lot. For example, we can see historical movies or dramas easily. If we know that historical movie/drama’s background, we can see that movie with more understanding. Also, almost all holidays are from history. Of course, Korea becoming a democratic country is from history. If we want to be intelligent people, I think we have to learn history because it influences us a lot.

 Korea is now 4350 years old, and it means that we have 4350 years’ of history. You know, there is a famous statement, "A nation that forgets its past has no future". Korean history is necessary for the take the Korean SAT, and I think we have to make students learn and understand history.