yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Why study US history, government, and civics? | US government and civics | Khan Academy


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

So John, if I'm a student studying American history or U.S. government, why should I care? Well, first, there are great stories. The characters in American history all the way through are fascinating; just human beings. They would make great movie characters, period—heroes, villains, people who have risen to courage when, you know, they were otherwise pretty boring people.

Look at Abraham Lincoln, for example. He failed miserably, repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly. Then he becomes the greatest president. When he's almost at the end of his—well, he doesn't know it's the end of his life—but later in life, after he's had his greatness, he says, "I confess that I was like a cork in a stream."

Well, if you're a regular person and you think my life feels without a purpose, you can think, well, the greatest president in America felt like his life was kind of bouncing around. So that is an incredibly human connection to greatness. We all need connections to greatness of whatever kind to inspire us, because the questions today that America faces about freedom and liberty and what it means to be an American, and how the power is distributed throughout our governments and our lives that affect us today, were discussed and talked about and wrestled over all throughout American history.

It is a continuing experiment. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he said this new country that we're creating has to constantly refresh. Each new generation has to refresh their contact with the original ideals that the country was founded on. Otherwise, the country will fail.

So it's not only important to know what's going on around us by studying history, but it is, according to Thomas Jefferson, your duty to stay engaged with the ideas of America so that those ideas don't get lost in the kind of flurry and craziness of a current moment.

More Articles

View All
Complex numbers
This video is going to be a quick review of complex numbers. If you studied complex numbers in the past, this will knock off some of the rust, and it’ll help explain why we use complex numbers in electrical engineering. If complex numbers are new to you,…
For One Flint, Michigan School - This is the Last Dance | National Geographic
Good morning, second students! Today is Friday, calm day in Wildcat country, and these are your morning announcements. [Music] * Describe it. It’s like magical, like the Grammys. Words I get butterflies in my stomach. So, fashion show, a competition—i…
Levels of Wealth (Car Edition)
Your car tells the world how well you’re doing in life. So in this video, we’ll break down what different levels of wealth drive around. Let’s see how high of a level you’ve made it to. Here are levels of wealth: the car edition. Welcome to Alux, the plac…
How Cod Saved the Vikings
When I was in the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway, I came across one of the strangest sights I have ever seen: cod. [♫ ominous low tone fades in ♪] Hundreds of thousands of them, strung up on racks, [♫ ominous low tone fades in ♪] their stench blanketi…
Linear equation word problems
When Quinn returned from vacation, he turned the heat back on in his home. He set the temperature as high as it could go. Q represents the temperature in Quinn’s home in degrees Celsius after T minutes. They say Q is equal to 15 plus 0.4T. What was the t…
6 Stocks the Smart Money is Buying for 2024!
In this video, we’re going to reveal the six stocks that the world’s greatest investors are spending billions of dollars buying. According to Warren Buffet, the single best way to find great investment ideas is to follow the investment decisions of elite …