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A week ago visiting professor Gideon Aran spoke at the Kennedy Center, commenting on the 9/11 attacks ten years after.

September 11th stunned America. We sat back, dazed and most of us wondered "how... why did this happen?" Lucky for us, the media was right there to soothe our insatiable curiosities and tell us exactly why America was under attack. A few years later, we learned to live with the facts and accept that Middle Easterners were all brainwashed to hate us because they didn't have a democracy like we did, they believed in people like Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein was limiting their ability to think correctly. Oh, and something about Al Qaeda too.

Not so, says professor Aran. He suggested that we collectively fell to the biases of the media and the politicians who desired to create a force and reason for retaliation. But in all reality, the reasons for Al Qaeda attacks were much deeper rooted in Middle Eastern history and U.S. relations with the Muslim people. Professor Aran emphasized the idea that the timeline for causation was almost endless. Where does the hate begin? How do we know which events to pinpoint?

To me, his musings highlighted a need for better history education. We live in the present and we plan for the future, but the past gets overlooked as quickly as it becomes the past. The human race as a whole marches forward, on to bigger and better things, hardly ever looking back - until something happens that sends us reeling. Suddenly Libya is in flames and we have no clue how it happened.
It is essential to know causation in order to find a solution.

History is essential in every field because it shows us what worked, what didn't and why. In the advances of science we build on the professionals before us who tested theories. In art we look at history to reflect upon social moods and means of expression. In political science we observe difference interactions between states to figure out why China is the way it is.

It is necessary to be well-versed in history so that when you have an opinion on the war in Iraq, your opinion counts for something. When you talk about the revolution in Egypt, you understand truly what is going on. When you joke about Kim Jong-Il, you know exactly what you're saying.

And in life, we need history to know where we're going next.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/education/30advanced.html?scp=12&sq=education+history&st=nyt