So You Want To Be: An Historian

Don't Know Much About History: High School and Social Studies By Marian Wilde, GreatSchools.net Senior Writer

Article Exert:

"However, one year of U.S. history in high school will not impress college admissions offices. The College Board, creators of the SAT and Advanced Placement classes, recommends that students take one year of U.S. History, one semester of U.S. government, one semester of economics, one semester of world history or geography, and one additional semester of one of the above or another social studies elective. The SAT's competitor, the ACT, recommends that high school students take three or more years of social studies."

"The Importance of History

To be well-versed in local, national and global history is to be well-equipped to understand current events and historical cycles, to be able to participate effectively in government, society and culture. "History keeps people from being ignorant," says Ravitch. "A nation that forgets its history can be manipulated. It doesn't make you a better person to know history, but it makes you a better citizen."

Ravitch sees the current emphasis on math and science as the subjects students need in order to compete in the global marketplace as being short-sighted. "I would argue that the economy depends just as much on linguistic skills as it does on math and science. We seem not to be advancing in humanistic things, such as history.""