Three Reasons Why Students Hate History

Three Reasons Why Students Hate History

We seldom hear students say “I love history” because most students hate history lesson. When our president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was a student, he probably hate history lesson, too. The prove that he hate history lesson stated in his statement while opening a Cabinet meeting on a bill about Yogyakarta’s privileges

“Our country is based on laws and is a democratic country, therefore, we shall not ignore democratic values and there should not be a monarchical system, which is against the Constitution and democratic values.”

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s statement made the people in Yogyakarta angry because he is considered to have forgotten the history of the birth of the privileges of Yogyakarta. I believe the reason why SBY forgot history of the birth of the privileges of Yogyakarta because he hate history lesson. However, he is not alone because many people hate history lesson, too. In my opinion, there are four reasons why students hate history; such as many students feel learning history does not make sense, they do not know to apply the benefits, and there are too many things to memorize.

Most students hate history because they feel history lesson does not make sense. They confuse why the teachers and school do not tell them about what future will be and how to handle it. Most of them said, “We are going to school to prepare our future, why we study about past?” They think it does not make sense to learn about death people and past because they do not see correlation between learning dates, names of death people, past event (read: history) and their future. That is why they hate history because they feel history lesson do not make sense.

Many students have asked “How can we benefit our present life by reading pages on long forgotten events (read: history)?” The answers are usually printed in history’s textbooks. Most of the first chapter in history’s textbook explains the benefits of learning history, such as: history as key to understanding future, a way to enrich the present, a contribution to liberal education, teaches humility, teaches a healthy skepticism, and influences human thought processes. Unfortunately, our curriculum made benefits of learning history as something to memorize, not to apply it in our everyday life. When I was a senior high student, history lesson was given once a week and only one study period (45 minutes). Teachers have limited time to help their students evaluate, analyze, or synthesize information. What make things worse are history lesson’s curriculum demand students to explain many events, for example: Indonesia’s proclamation and the establishment of Hindu-Buddha’s kingdoms. They demand an exhaustingly relentless processing of low-level knowledge and as a result the students only learn the definitions, not essential thing. They do not learn what lesson that they can benefit from learning history or what they can do to prevent tragedy. Curriculum makes students do not know how to apply the benefits in learning history in their everyday life. No wonder, many student think history are useless and wasting their time because they only remember the benefits but they do not know how to apply it.

The third reason why many student hate history that there are too many things to memorize. History is purely a test of your memory because history is rich in detail. From day one, students are in a race to memorize as many names, places, dates, and laws as possible.  When I am in second grade senior high school, I was expected to learn (read: memorize) the Hindu-Buddha’s kingdoms (400 M) until Indonesia’s Independence Day (1945). Can you imagine my friends and I (read: students) are expected to remember things that happened from 400 M to 1945 M? We are talking about covering a period from the 4^th century to 1945. In other word, the students are forced to read and remember whole textbook. I believe forcing student to memorize many things is no way to encourage a passion for learning history. Instead, it is a cause of immense stress to students. No wonder many students hate history lesson.

Although we know learning history has many benefits, such as: history as key to understanding future, a way to enrich the present, a contribution to liberal education, teaches humility, teaches a healthy skepticism, and influences human thought processes, many students still hate history lesson regardless of its benefits in learning history. It happened because they feel learning history do not make sense, they do not know how to apply the benefits, and there are too many things to memorize. I believe if we change the curriculum and make student understand the benefits, they may change their mind and like history lesson.

References

King, B. D., Wayne, V., & Woody, W. D. (2009). History of psychology: Ideas and context (4^th Ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Maulia, E. SBY denies controversial statement on yogya. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/12/02/sby-denies-controversial-statement-yogya.html (03-12-2010)

Reed, J. Why your kids hate history: Mile wide, inch deep. http://www.examiner.com/history-geek-in-national/why-your-kids-hate-history-mile-wide-inch-deep.html  (03-12-2010)

 Suryandari, S. Jangan ulangi kesalahan masa lalu. http://www.mediaindonesia.com/read/2010/11/11/184895/3/1/Jangan-Ulangi-Kesalahan-Masa-Lalu.html. (01-12-2010)