▶ Your Answer :
Some people might say that university
students don’t need to take history courses regardless of their majors. They
believe that it is meaningless to study facts in the past. However, in my
opinion, all university students should take history courses no matter what
their major is. There are two reasons for my statement.
First of all, it can develop national
identity for students to study history. In addition, it is important to have
such identity in our widely globalized world. Without the identity, people are
likely to be confused in some situations of our world, even they can be
influenced negatively and have difficulty in achieving happiness. Think about
US immigrant policy in 1960s. The policy focused on an immigrant’s developing
his or her identity as an US citizen and discarding her identity as a citizen
in the home country. The policy was not successful because immigrants’
confusing identities resulted in difficulties for them to adapt their new
country. This was because their both identities in the new country and the home
country were not established in well-balance. In this regard, a national
identity is important in one’s life and history courses can develop such identity.
Second, a history helps us understand a
country or an ethnic. This is because the history represents a context of the
country or the ethnic. Let me introduce my personal experience as an example.
When I visited at Varanasi, India, I saw a scene that people burn a dead man
next to the river. All people around the dead man lived their daily life such
as cleaning their clothes and having a lunch even though I was so scared. I
couldn’t understand why they burn the dead man, but after coming back to my
country, I investigated a history in India. I found out that a custom that
Indian burns the dead man has persisted for a long time. Also, Indian believes
that a dead man can live well in his or her after-death lives if they are
burned after death. It was really helpful for me to study a history in
understanding a country and an ethnic.
To sum up, studying history can develop one’s
national identity, which is important value in our globalized world, and help
us understand a country and an ethnic. For these reasons, I think all university
students need to take history courses regardless of their major.
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