History can be an important tool for learning from past mistakes and it can also be an important tool for establishing traditions or norms or setting expectations for 'society'.

I think there is so much history we could all choose the parts that are significant to our own ancestral history and still learn the same basic lessons. Which leads me to this question,,,


How significant is it for people to learn (or more accurately , memorize) specific dates when studying history?

Part of what I dreaded about history was the requirement to memorize dates as there were so many to memorize and I didnt see what knowing a 'date' did to enhance my knowledge.

If you were teaching history, how much significance would you place on knowing 'dates' compared to knowing the how, where, and why of historical events?

I have no idea what you mean.

Generally people will only remember dates that mean something to them, like christmas day.

The only date thats important to me is 1903! :D

Precise date reckoning would be of less importance than general dating of what happened before versus what happened after since most of history is repeated. Like the rise of fall of people, places and things is basically repetitive in nature. Such as the rise and fall of the third reich and the rise and fall of the Roman empire. Pompey and Atlantis seem similar in nature. War and Peace by Tolstoy lets us know that an event morphs into another event. You got basic premises through what happened before; What happened during and What happened after. Change seems to be inevitable in nature and with people.

Yes, I agree. I think it may be significant, for placement sake, to remember Pearl Harbor was 1941 and Hiroschima was 1945..but remembering specific dates seems of less significance to me.

I keep my dates on a calendar

Historical events & its dates:
Unless we are totally devoted to any work/subject it's not possible to have full beauty of it.We can't feel it.
Consider Newton's law of motion:It is known to almost every body. Some of us memorize it mechanically; some of us memorize it with full understanding.But still we are not Newton. I think it is our lack of devotion.
Only kinowing laws won't make us scientist; only knowing event/date won't make us historian.We have to feelit.
Without date of event it won't be a compelete picture.These dates may not be much important to us but I think very important to be ........

Google the Event!

http://www.google.com
Sure glad I haven't to learn Stuff by Rote any longer!

Learning dates is hard-core.
Best to learn the history.
But for some, the date helps
place the timeline of the
event in the mind.
The visual of that date stays
on the brain.
With a photographic memory,
it is a big help.

For me, dates are unimportant. It is the event that sticks with me.

Pearl Harbor
D-Day
Elvis died
World trade center
Fall of the Berlin wall
Soufie offering herself to me.


The images and feelings are all I keep. Dates escape me.

I love History and can generalise around the year of different events, but that is only the year, a few dates of historic things that I was really interested in have stuck, but I really cant see the importance of knowing the date,

I am more likely to remember the year that someothing happened than the name of who it happened to, just because I can remember umbers.

When I was high school I disliked history soooo much but found that later when older and I could travel and see some of the places where the history took place, was much easier.. Guess I needed something to connect it to...

well OK I will delve here as I have a history degree and am also qualified to teach it, and did many yrs ago teach it briefly.

Knowledge of dates - at least in approximation is relatively important in order to place historic events in context. For example I have met people who did not know that the American Revolution preceded the American Civil War. (this is true)

To me it's like learning to walk before learning to run ,even if that is only a brief interval, history placed in context of the time the events took place gives those events more meaning. For example to understand the French Revolution in context, or what was happening in England with the economy or the Westward Expansion during our own Civil War. just my .02

however - once the dates are learned as a youngster, I think it is fine to recall approximations within a few years time when speaking in general. The more specific the topic the more important to know more exactly when events ocurred.....again jmho

well that looks like a pretty important in your photo Sir!

The History Station works for me!

History was one of my main studies also, but I didn't get it till I got beyond the high school level. High school seemed more Americanized and biased, hard to find a good world history source.

it depends on the instructors and the school district. I went to a small neighborhood HS where they experimented with the curricula. We did mods and I did a history survey - and a world religion class in the same time period. then american history mods simultaneously with american lit and soc. it was an exceptional school - that -as you say - I am grateful for in hindsight. at the time I thought I was in prison


in addition, to add to my high school experience, we did our american studies as independent - partly. we met at our instructor's home once a week for discussion and debate of topics like pre civil war southern economy and whether the war was an idealogical fight vis a vis slavery, or an economic one (my leaning). So for high school students we had to delve, including know some of the dates, to graduate.

Independent studies, I like this approach. I didn't get to do the class room thing from my senior year in high school through my college days cause I was tutored, and from what I have heard was probably the best way for me to learn. Because I was on tour Catherin laid out my history learning to correspond a lot of time with where we were. Kinda neat actually.