When I was growing up, I viewed history as boring and something in the past which did not affect me. Part of this might have been because of the history teachers, but a more valid explanation might be my age, a lack of life experiences, and a limited amount of reading. (Yes, even I did not do much reading unless it was assigned, something my friends were reading, or an extremely popular book.)
In fact, my love for historical fiction has expanded to include cultural or global pieces to help me grow and learn about the people and places which make up the world. Reading works like Cry, the Beloved Country or Copper Sun can show readers places they will probably never visit. Seeing these places on television or in a movie might offer some idea of what these places are like, but we all know it doesn't compare to the ability to walk in the person's shoes that reading can offer.
Readers can also learn an awful lot about Nebraska from reading pieces written by authors from here. It could be a fictional piece like My Antonia or a biographical piece like Old Jules. However, the point is if we don't read such things, then how else can we learn about these things? Much of Nebraska history is covered in elementary and middle school while the high school focuses on national or global events.
For your blog response, I ask you to reflect on your own experiences with learning about the past and other cultures. What role has literature played in helping you grow as a reader, a person, and a learner? How do you think literature will play a role in shaping your views in the coming years and throughout your life?
Most of my knowledge of history and cultural life has come from the classes at school. The primary role that literature has serve me is to enhance what I have learned in these classes. Things that I learned from my classes can be applied to the books I read about today and the past. Books have only started to teach me little about history in the past two years. These past two years have help me better know the situation of Afghanistan through The Kite Runner and the life of a prisoner of war during World War II in Unbroken. I believe that I will begin learning more and more about history and culture through novels as I get older.
ReplyDeleteLiterature has helped me learn in many aspects but especially about the past and other cultures. For instance the book the Kite Runner helped me to learn what the cultures are like in Afghanistan compared to the United States. Another example would be To Kill a Mockingbird. This book allowed me to grasp a better understanding of the racism that African-Americans have put up with over many years. I feel that literature will continue to help me learn about things from the past and the cultures that are present in other areas in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe knowledge I have of the past and cultural life has come from classes in school, forums online, and books/articles I have read. It has really served a role in my life because it helps make me smarter about the past and what has happened in the world. I like to say that it is really interesting learning about history and the past. I think that historical literature will give me more of a broad image of how the past used to be rather than more of a factual based view on the past. I think it will help me realize that not all facts are true about the past and it will help me view the past in a broader way.
ReplyDeleteA good portion of my learning about the past has been done in classes throughout high school. With this said, literature also has helped me a ton when it comes to learning about the past and other cultures. A main book that comes to mind is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I learned about how blacks were treated in the south back in the day. Blacks were framed for rape, and couldn't do anything about it, due to the simple fact that they were black. Literature has played a fairly large role in helping me grow, as I have learned more things than I do in any other class. Literature helps me as a person, as I know how I should treat people. I know how African-Americans were treated in the south, and it is shocking. I believe that as I go throughout my life, and continue to read more difficult books, I will continue to learn. It will help shape my views, as I will learn how to see situations from other points of view.
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ReplyDeleteA lot of my knowledge of history and culture is at school and from books that I have recently read. I have learned most of it in my classes when we read a lot of the books that we do. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Kite Runner are both good examples of books that I have learned culture and history in. These books have helped my grow learning wise and I have grown an appreciation for history and cultures. I think that literature will open my eyes to new things and help me grow as a person and view my past and future in a better way.
ReplyDeleteAlmost all of my knowledge of history has come from textbooks from school, books we have to read in class, or research again for school. The books we read last year in English gave me a lot of insight to other cultures and history. I think as I continue to further my education and expand my readings, I will learn a lot more about history.. Specifically from different view points, like that of John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath.
ReplyDeleteBefore I started reading a lot of books, most of my knowledge on history and culture came from history class and first-hand experience. However, after I started to read books I started to gain a much better understanding of different cultures and about history. Books like To Kill a Mockingbird helped me better understand the racial tension in the United States and the way thinking in that time period. In the future, I'm sure that literature will allow me to learn even more about different cultures and might even teach me a few life lessons.
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ReplyDeleteQuite honestly, I'm not much of a history buff, I don't retain historical facts very well. I tend to focus more on the characters in the books I'm reading. The way they react to life's challenges and road blocks interests me much more than the way a country's government runs or doesn't run and falls apart. I'm not involved in politics, and I don't see myself as a world traveler, so I guess my admittedly ignorant reasoning is I'll just let other, more qualified thinkers and politicians deal with the world's intricate and many problems.
ReplyDeleteMost of my previous knowledge of history and cultural past is from school and online forums. Historical literature gave me a different view on the past, and allowed me to become more opened minded on new knowledge about our past. I think literature plays a role for us to have a broader view on history, and shows that facts aren't always true about everything. I think reading the novel, TGOW, will help the class and I learn more about the great depression and other experiences from that time period.
ReplyDeleteLiterature has been one of the best ways I've learned about history and culture. Textbooks tend to be just plain facts and straight-forward, but novels help you understand how people truly felt in that time period or area. An example of this would be To Kill A Mocking Bird. I heard a lot about racism and segregation in the 1930s before, but reading TKAM made me understand the emotions in the time period. I believe the more historical books I read, the more I will learn and appreciate the knowledge I gain from literature.
ReplyDeleteMost to all of my learning of the past has been from textbooks, lectures, and assigned reading. As I move through high school and into college I'm sure the literature I'm assigned will help broaden my view. Even though I'm not a huge fan of historical novels I feel they have had some impact on how I view the world and the past.
ReplyDeleteLiterature has effected me as a reader by enhancing my reading skills as a whole. I understand the different languages people write in like in Jane Eyre. Literature has helped me learn because usually there's events in the story that happened while the author was writing it. Like in Grapes of Wrath, I'm learning more about the life of people during the Great Depression. As a person, it's helped me apply the morals and lessons to my life. It's shaped my ideas and choices as an individual.
ReplyDeleteI have previously read books about the dust bowl and have learned about the dust bowl from this and text books. I was also obsessed with reading historical fiction in elementary and middle school. I would read books from different cultures, from Indian times in American, colony times, england, ancient russia, ancient egypt, greece, midieval times, great depression, revolutionary, slavery and civil war time, etc. I think that having read numerous books on history from all around the world has made me more aware of social issues from the time period and now. It can make me realize how much society and civilizations have advanced since the beginning of time. Literature will continue to educate young people and old because its a way for everyone to share their different viewpoints and reflect on events or experiences in their life and people will continue to read to gather knowledge and ideas.
ReplyDeleteGrowing as a reader, I see a huge change through my writing. The literature has taught me to write in a different and more of a variety type of way. As a person, it has changed me in the ways I view things. Women in literature struggled in a way I will never know and I learn from literature the fight that they went through. As a learner, I believe that my knowledge has spread more because of literature because it can teach you love, history, art and etc. As I stated earlier, I have learned a lot the struggles that women went through and if I were to bring anything from literature into the real world and future I would probably apply that to my life and think about different situations with that in mind.
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ReplyDeleteI feel that in our time people don't appreciate history as much as we used to. We can learn from the past and experience things that we would never get a chance to experience. I think one great yet sad example of historical literature is The Dairy of Anne Frank. From this book we get to learn about her experiences and the experiences of the holocaust. One reason I'm excited to read Grapes of Wrath is to learn more about that time period and the people in it.
ReplyDeleteMy experiences with learning about the past have been a lot through stories. My grandpa and my great grandpa both served in the air force and fought over seas. So where I have learned about different cultures and the past is all from the stories they have told. I have read many war books that they have suggested I read. For example there is a book I read recently that is a new book that one of my grandpas friend wrote reflecting on the vietnam war and the training they went through. This literature has changed my way of thinking greatly. I have learned the hardships and difficulties of it and it changes how I think when starting a new book about the culture and history of how things were back when my grandpa was a kid. In the future literature will shape how I think. Literature about our history and culture have an infinite amount of things we can learn and potential. So war is what interests me the most but those war history books still will help me learn lessons from the past and make me wiser for the future.
ReplyDeleteMost of my knowledge of the past/history is from school. All of the books I have been assigned to read have helped me grow as a reader, person, and learner: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and The Kite Runner, helped me realize how badly other countries have/had it, Flowers for Algernon helped me understand how disabled people think/feel, and To Kill a Mockingbird gave me insight to how differently people were treated back then. As I continue with school, and read various genres will open my mind more and help me understand things from more than one view point/perspective.
ReplyDeleteHistory has never been of great interest to me. It has always seemed mind-numbingly boring to me.My recent interest in the musical Hamilton and my participation in Mr. Allen's Goverment class has contributed to my growing interest in the past. I kind of enjoyed Jane Eyre, but not much. I hope to be more interested by Grapes of Wrath, and to come to enjoy historical fiction.
ReplyDeleteI have never really been that much into history myself. To me what is happening now is interesting enough. However, I do enjoy reading about what life was like for some people back then. Much of my knowledge of history has actually come from traveling. I travel with my family to various places and we all love to explore the historic significance of the place. Whether it be Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, or Colorado, there is always some sort of history that makes it special. So because we love to learn while we travel I like to read up on places that I would like to go to. I don not typically enjoy the historical fiction of these places but I enjoy the non fiction. Learning what is true impacts me more than what is made up.
ReplyDeleteMy knowledge of history has came from school and a few books we've read in English in the past. My favorite example of this is 'The Things We Carried", which I read last year in English. This is the only book that I have liked that was 'historical'. I think that as advance I will think I will develop a better understanding and more knowledge about history.
ReplyDeleteI've been lucky to read a lot of those Dear America..., the historic diaries of princesses, and text books for fun. I have always enjoyed reading the historical texts for years. I believe as I continue to grow in my reading career, I believe I will continue to enjoy these types of books.
ReplyDeleteI have learned most of the history that I know from school and from text books. Literature has taught me about the different kinds of lives that people lived in the past and present. I have been able to learn about people's cultures, family rituals, and hardships of the past. I think that literature will still continue to teach me in future years about all sorts of things that I already knew or that is new to me.
ReplyDeleteLiterature has taught me how to be a better reader by giving me different ways to look at a situation. As a person it shows me how other people feel when something happens to them, this helps me grow to understand others. As a learner literature is vital to teaching, to grow as a learner literature throughout the years has taught me many things. In the future I believe that literature will teach me a lot about subjects that I had never though of before.
ReplyDeleteLiterature has made me a better student and learner. It has helped me in many classes. I have learned to understand other people. Literature has also helped me be able to teach or guide other people in the right direction. Literature has made me a better person
ReplyDeleteReading books and literature has definitely had an affect on my writing and life. As much as possible I try to learn the different styles of writers and writing to learn how to make myself a better writing. It also allows me to explore deeper meanings of books and has always affected my personality. I love reading literature about life and books that discuss deeper topics simply because it relates so much more to my life and the world that I live in.
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