- Claim: Knowing about the past cannot help people to make important decisions today. Reason: The world today is significantly more complex than it was even in the relatively recent past.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.________________________________________
The speaker asserts that the only one lesson we can learn from studying history is that knowledge on the past cannot help us to make important decisions today. In some sense, I tend to agree with the speaker’s assertion that history is irrelevant to our present decision-makings. By emphasizing obvious difference and independence between the present and the past, however, the speaker is overlooking the possible benefits of studying the past to our present decisions, especially in terms of obtain of the general guidance as well as expansion of individual experience.
Admittedly, it is undeniable that the present is working under the very new and complex environment incompatible to the past in most areas of human endeavors. With respect to many technical and specific problems, the diagnosis and treatment of the past can never be an effective guidance to those problems in today. For example, school teachers and educators in general would not find the relevant instruction techniques from investigating the effective techniques used by their predecessors. Because students in modern classrooms have different life styles and desires from those of the past, it will never be a meaningful solution if the adopted instructional techniques are ignoring modern conveniences such as internet or various electronic appliances. This implies that most of specific decisions today cannot be directly assisted by the study of the past.
However, it does not mean that understanding the past is absolutely meaningless in our present decisions. In terms of obtaining the general principles and gist of some human endeavors, the past can be the most important guidance to reduce the trial-and-errors and reach the effective decisions. Even the educators who may not receive the efficacious solutions to solve the technical questions can find the answer to the issue such as what the ultimate goal of education should be and what the most desirable attitudes a teacher can assume to provide the true inspiration. This says that the past itself can be a good guidance to the decisions of today.
Moreover, understanding the past can be beneficial to our present decisions in other ways. For some people who lack the direct individual experience, studying the past may provide them with valuable indirect experiences, thus ultimately contributed to the considered decision-making. To most young teachers, the diverse past cases in educational setting told by the old will surely be beneficial because the stories of the past will supplement their scant experience and lead them to the informed and considerate decisions when they face the similar cases. This also shows that the past is a significant guidance to our present decisions.
To sum, ……………….