It's Not About Memorization - How to Study History
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of the Quirk Inquiry, the host emphasizes the significance of studying history as the backbone of all human endeavors. They critique the traditional educational focus on memorization over understanding and propose a new approach to studying history. This involves initially gaining a holistic view of historical events before delving into specifics, akin to reading a novel. The host suggests pre-reading history textbooks to establish a structural framework, which facilitates easier memorization and understanding during lectures, ultimately fostering a genuine interest in history.
Takeaways
- 📚 The speaker emphasizes the importance of studying history as it provides context and understanding to other fields of study such as literature, science, and philosophy.
- 🌟 History is not just a collection of facts but a narrative that helps us comprehend the evolution of human thought and actions over time.
- 🧠 The speaker suggests that historical studies should focus on understanding and interpretation rather than mere memorization of dates and events.
- 🔍 To truly grasp history, one should look for the underlying trends and motivations behind events, not just the specific details.
- 📈 The speaker advocates for a holistic approach to studying history, starting with a broad overview before diving into specific facts and details.
- 📖 Reading history textbooks should be approached like reading a novel, focusing on the narrative and structure first, rather than on individual facts.
- 🤔 Critical thinking is essential when studying history; one should question the significance of events and not just regurgitate facts.
- 📝 The conventional educational approach to history, which focuses heavily on memorization, is critiqued as it can lead to a scattered and incohesive understanding of historical events.
- 🛠️ The speaker proposes a method of studying history that involves pre-reading to get a general sense of the narrative before engaging with the details in class.
- 🌱 The video serves as a call to action for viewers to rethink their approach to history, aiming for a deeper and more meaningful connection with the past.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the video 'Quirkly Inquiry' episode discussed in the transcript?
-The main theme of the video is the importance of studying history in a holistic and contextual manner, emphasizing the interconnectedness of history with other fields of study such as literature, science, philosophy, and poetry.
Why does the speaker believe history is crucial for understanding other fields of study?
-The speaker believes history is crucial because it provides the context and backbone that connects and influences literature, science, philosophy, and other fields, showing how ideas and concepts have evolved over time.
What is the speaker's critique of the traditional approach to studying history in schools?
-The speaker criticizes the traditional approach for its heavy emphasis on memorization of specific facts, dates, and concepts, rather than fostering a deep understanding and application of historical events and their significance.
How does the speaker suggest one should approach studying history to avoid a scattered collection of facts?
-The speaker suggests gaining a holistic view of the entire historical period first, laying out the backbone or the general trend line, before attaching specific facts and details to it, similar to constructing a skeleton before adding organs and finer details.
What is the analogy the speaker uses to explain the proper way to study history?
-The speaker uses the analogy of Dr. Frankenstein building Prometheus, emphasizing the importance of starting with the skeleton (the backbone of history) before attaching the organs and finer details (specific historical facts).
What is the speaker's recommendation for the initial reading of a history textbook?
-The speaker recommends reading a history textbook like a novel during the first pass, focusing on grasping the general trend and structure without getting bogged down in details or taking notes.
Why is pre-reading important according to the speaker?
-Pre-reading is important because it allows one to lay out a general understanding of the historical period, making it easier to attach specific details during lectures and subsequent study, enhancing comprehension and retention.
What is the speaker's view on the significance of dates and specific events in historical studies?
-While acknowledging the benefits of memorization, the speaker views dates and specific events as less important than understanding the general trends, motivations, and contexts that shape historical periods.
How does the speaker propose to improve the study of history to make it more meaningful and cohesive?
-The speaker proposes to improve the study of history by focusing on gaining a holistic view first, understanding the general progression and significance of events, and then attaching specific facts to this broader understanding.
What is the main takeaway from the speaker's discussion on the study of history?
-The main takeaway is that to truly understand and appreciate history, one should focus on the broader context and significance of events rather than just memorizing dates and facts, which can lead to a more cohesive and meaningful study of the past.
Outlines
📚 The Importance of Historical Context
The speaker introduces the topic of history, emphasizing its significance as the backbone of various fields of study. They express their fascination with history and how it connects literature, science, philosophy, and poetry. The speaker argues that historical context is crucial for understanding these fields and provides meaning to human endeavors on Earth. They also discuss the importance of studying history correctly, not just as a collection of dates and events, but as a cohesive narrative that gives context to our understanding of the world.
🤔 Beyond Memorization: Understanding History
The speaker critiques the common educational approach to studying history, which focuses on memorization rather than understanding. They argue that this method leads to a disjointed view of history, where students can recall facts but lack critical thinking about the significance of events. The speaker suggests that students should first grasp the general trends and motivations behind historical events before delving into specific details. This approach, they argue, will lead to a more cohesive understanding of history and a genuine interest in the subject.
📖 Reading History Like a Novel: A New Approach
The speaker proposes a new method for studying history, suggesting that students should initially read history textbooks like novels to gain a broad understanding of the narrative. They recommend pre-reading chapters without taking detailed notes, focusing instead on identifying the general progression and structure of events. Once this 'backbone' is established, students can then attend lectures and fill in the details, which will be easier to memorize and understand within the context of the broader historical narrative. This approach is likened to constructing a creature like Frankenstein's Prometheus, where the skeleton is built before attaching the finer details.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡History
💡Memorization
💡Historical Context
💡Cohesion
💡Critical Thinking
💡Backbone
💡Pre-reading
💡Trend Line
💡Structuralist Definition
💡Application
Highlights
Emphasizing the importance of history as the context and backbone of various fields of study.
History is not just a collection of events but a product of historical contexts.
Studying history is crucial for understanding the human purpose and meaning on earth.
The challenge of interpreting historical events and making sense of their significance.
The common educational approach that focuses on memorization over application.
The importance of understanding the general progression of history rather than memorizing specific details.
The problem with the conventional approach to history that leads to scattered events and lack of cohesion.
The need for a holistic view of history before delving into specific facts.
The analogy of building a structure like Prometheus from the ground up without a skeleton.
The practical approach to reading history textbooks like a novel for the first read-through.
The benefits of pre-reading history textbooks to gain a general trend line before class.
How to construct notes effectively after gaining a holistic understanding of the historical context.
The significance of the 'backbone' approach in history learning for better retention and understanding.
The speaker's personal invitation to correct the paradigm of viewing history and to introduce a new way of studying it.
The contrast between memorizing random facts and understanding the broader historical narrative.
The speaker's critique of the educational system's emphasis on memorization at the expense of critical thinking.
The advice on how to approach historical analysis tasks with a solid understanding of the historical context.
Transcripts
hello and welcome back to yet another
episode of the quirky inquiry it's a new
beginning of a new year so we're gonna
begin this year by talking about a topic
that I'd never ever touched upon before
so I've been meaning to make a video
about history for a long long time now
because history is one of the areas of
study that really fascinates me not just
because its history but history really
is the context and the backbone of all
the other things that have interested
I'm interested in literature interested
in Oh science interested in philosophy
and interesting poetry all that kind of
stuff they all are connected together by
the sort of historical context and by
the sort of historical backbone
so whatever literature whatever poetry
on whatever philosophy that you read
there are not inventions that comes out
of a vat in an empty vacuum they're not
just the brain sitting in the vat and
then I think therefore I am
they cards sitting in his room alone
they didn't come in isolation it's not
invented out of a vacuum as rationalists
would like to assume but instead it is
really history is a product or rather
the fields of studies that we coming to
contact today are all products of
historical contexts philosophers dealt
with different problems in the past to a
specific history historical contexts
scientific theories are invented in
response to a certain paradigm of
viewing the world and an ideas changed
throughout time the definition of
madness have morphed dramatically
throughout the centuries which is the
title of the book math and civilization
by Michel Foucault which have been
reading for the past week or so so
nevertheless that is the importance of
studying history because it is what
brings everything together and it is
what gives context to every other fields
of studies out there so studying history
comes in to supreme importance if you
care about being a renaissance person if
you care about understanding what are
human beings doing here on earth and
then what is our purpose what is the
meaning of all this if you want to truly
understand that history is the way to go
down but the prom' here comes how do you
probably study history
how do you probably interpret historical
events how do you relate the events to
the significance of the events and how
do you make sense of it all because if
you miss read history if you read
history in a very shoddy fashion what's
gonna start to happen is that all you're
gonna have is a bunch of scattered
events in your brain you can recall
dates you can recall events you can know
what exactly happened but there's no
real cohesion happening history for you
if you study it in a wrong way are just
gonna be a collection of scattered
events collection of quotes collection
of people and collection of people's
ideas there's no real cohesion that
gives you this ah the sense of odd that
it gives you there's no real passion or
Rijn or genuine interest if you approach
history in the wrong manner so in this
video let me correct that paradigm of
viewing history let me introduce a new
way of doing history that's gonna
drastically increase two things increase
your level of accurate understanding of
history your level of interpretation and
also increase your interest in this area
of study because history is sort of a
lengthy journey and to study history
state is to investing a lot of time and
then the amount of reading that you have
to do it's truly paramount there's a lot
of reading that you have to do to make
sense of history okay so it's gonna
increase two things your interesting
history and also the righteous accurate
understanding there's a bad habit if
we've picked up from school and this is
the bad habit that I sort of disagree
with or this is the sort of doing things
that I disagree with within the
educational system which is that there's
a heavy emphasis on memorization instead
of application let me repeat that
there's a heavy emphasis on memorization
instead of application of specific facts
specific dates and specific concepts
throughout history so when a history
student when history student cracks open
a history textbook for example at the
American Revolution history textbook
when they crack open that book there's
this knee-jerk reaction for students to
memorize things to knee-jerk Lee focus
on every little detail as possible to
capture every
detail as possible to try to attempt to
memorize all these technical details to
try to really dig deep into the dates
when exactly did something happen who
was involved in it and who wrote this
thing that came to contribute to what
influence so there's a knee-jerk ration
for people when they approach historical
studies to find this memorization to be
the supreme importance to put
memorization above understanding so
therefore you have people constructing
all sorts of fancy flashcards you have
people summarizing notes as they're
reading you have people highlighting
every aspects of the history textbook
but at the end of the study you ask him
Oh what is the significance of XYZ all
that they can do is to regurgitate the
facts without actually offering any
critical thinking behind that history so
that's the knee-jerk reaction that we've
been there only toe that's the way to do
things and that's the knee-jerk reaction
that we all have when we do subjects
such as literature when we do subjects
such as philosophy or such as history at
school now there's benefits to
memorization but let's not put the horse
I mean let's not put the card in front
of a horse here there's a different
orders of magnitude to memorization but
we shouldn't get the order wrong ask
yourself why are you studying history in
the first place are you now studying
history because you want to know the
general progression of history at least
based on a structuralist definition you
are spotting a general trend of what is
happening throughout time you're
outlining what the humans are doing
through that specific era of time for
example the the American Revolution why
did it come to the land and why is it
the case that they start to rebel
against the British you want to note
that general trend line and you want to
understand the motives the motivations
and all sorts of historical packages
that comes with this sort of
revolutionary sentiment you want to
understand that that's the core thing
that you need to understand so now what
most people do is that they put the card
in front of a horse when they study
history they worry about
Oh some guy died died of a lightning
strike in seventy eighty three because
he rebelled against the British garv
government or something like that
they go jumping to the specific little
details first they worry about the trees
before actually getting a holistic view
of the entire forest now what is turning
to is them collecting random facts from
the history textbook oh okay
there's a guy by the name of something
and he died in the tide in a Boston
Massacre and then in fact he was a man
of color so yeah that's a random fact
that I should document down or there's
another guy by the name of there's this
French guy from France by the name of
the Lafayette and he came to America
when he was 19 years old and then oh
that guy okay let me document that fact
right that fact hour right there along
with the dates so then this turns into
this sort of scavenger hunt of random
information and this also contributes
back to the lack of cohesion later on
when you face your analysis tasks or
source analysis or essay tasks in the
future so instead of collecting random
facts which is a laborious process and
instead of collecting all these quotes
that you couldn't really memorize
without much context so that's the
problem with collecting random
information it's because there's no real
context to brown all of these these
information your mind is not functioning
as a map that maps all of these things
together to make you understand it in a
cohesive manner but instead you're just
collecting random pieces of tree barks
you're not exactly seeing the entire
forest bathing set you're worrying about
the little tree that's in front of you
right so there's no real context for you
to brown any of your facts in there's no
real context for you to ground pieces of
information in so therefore those
there's no cohesion in your historical
studies instead what you want to do is
to gain a holistic view of the entire
picture first lay out the backbone first
instead of putting a card in front of a
horse so to speak so instead of reading
every little details of it you want to
gain a very broad overview of what
exactly is happening you want to gain a
very broad
inspection of the entire scenery okay
from maybe 70-54 the Seven Years War
okay let me let me take a look at that
okay the L pity Congress or something
like that and you just start from that
point okay start from the Albany
Congress all the way to the Declaration
of Independence
let me just rethread adding a linear
progression without worrying about the
details and I what's gonna start to
happen is that as you assemble these
informations on a trend line as you aim
to gain a holistic understanding instead
of getting bogged down in the details
once the backbone is laid out then you
go back to your my new shot then you go
back to your little facts then the facts
will be effortlessly for you to memorize
because once you have the backbone you
can just simply attach different facts
upon this backbone without much fuss the
problem with the conventional way of
picking everything up is that it is
analogous to if you want to build your
Prometheus in Frankenstein for example
of dr. Frankenstein wants to build he's
permit us the wrong approach is to build
the Prometheus from the toe to the head
to start from every little nerve from
the front from the toe and to build this
thing from the ground up without a
skeleton so that's the wrong approach
that's gonna take a lot longer you're
not gonna know what goes where and all
you have is this collection of scattered
information with how much cohesion but
instead dr. Frankenstein has a layout
that stays the skeletal structures first
dr. Frankenstein has to get the skeleton
right before he can attach the nurse
attach to organs and finally attach to
finer details of the skin of the muscle
groups and finally construct the
Prometheus right
similarly with history you need a
backbone before you can put put up all
of my new shop first you need the
skeleton the skeletal structure first
before you can put in all to random
little details so how can we apply this
practically so practically if you would
to read history the first time that you
read a historic history textbook you
read it like a novel okay read a history
textbook like a novel the first time
that you were approached
so this is the importance of pre reading
before classes pre read through the
entire chapter without taking notes
without worrying about the little
details without worrying about the dates
but instead pick up pick up a general
trend line pick up this entire school
Edo structure that you're in that you're
gonna later gonna use so when you go to
class when you listen to your teachers
lectures now you can begin the process
of attaching organs to your prometheus
you can begin the process of attaching
little information to your backbone
structure which you've already laid out
in your pre reading so after the lecture
then you can start to construct your
notes and then taking notes at this
point it's just effortless because you
know what goes where what's happening
what things are significant while others
are not instead of coming in contact
with a bunch of information not knowing
what goes where what is more important
than the other and what is worth
memorizing and what is not so this
backbone right here is really gonna
serve you well so yep that's what I have
to say about history very short not
exactly that short but a very brief
introduction into historical reading
happy New Year and happy holidays this
is the Creek enquiry signing off right
now
Ver Más Videos Relacionados
Inspectional Reading - How To Read For Understanding
Kurikulum Merdeka : Sejarah dan Teori Sosial || Sejarah Kelas X (Modul Unit 4)
PENGANTAR METODOLOGI SEJARAH
Understanding History: Meaning & Importance
Anatomy of the Skeleton
Marice Diokno Speak and Inspire: Re-writing the future by looking at the past
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)