"Teaching What Really Happened" and A Brief History of Lawns

   
     Both of these articles made me understand the importance of history.  I used to think history was learned in school simply so that we could know what our country did and how it impacted our laws. I know have learned that history is more than just memorizing dates and wars, it is learning how it impacted people.  For example, Loewen mentions how history was taught incorrectly in Mississippi (2009, p. 2).  For many years the students of Mississippi believed that African Americans had power at some point in the past but whites had to take back control because they were not able to run the state correctly.  This helped people believe that African Americans were not capable of leadership when in reality, African Americans never took power.  Students were learning a part of history that was not correct and but that is all they knew because the teachers were teaching whatever was in textbooks.  Even teachers were not aware of the mistakes that were being taught because most of the textbooks were biased and teachers taught what the book contained. 

     It is important for students and society to learn about history because it can help shape their future.  We can learn from history and we can choose to repeat the negatives or choose to change many things.  The article about the history of lawns provided us a brief history on how lawns became popular in the United States.  Many countries do not have lawns because they use their land differently.  Even though our front lawns really do not have a purpose it is very common for many homes to have them because that just became the norm.  Like me, many people may not know that a long time ago, the bigger the lawn the wealthier the person.  If more people knew of the real reason of lawns we might see less of front lawns.