When I was in high school I hated all of my history courses. Oddly enough I still managed to win the top history student award each time I took one of those classes. I still have my medals from World History and American History but I remember little of what I learned, or should I say memorized, back then. It was not until I went to college that I began to see the unfolding of civilizations as interesting subject matter. I had a particularly exceptional professor at the University of Houston who began his discussions of each era by insisting that we first learn about what life was like for the people who lived during particular times. He wanted us to be able to understand the world through the eyes of the people who were there, not those who vicariously wrote about them decades or centuries later. He also used a number of first person sources to demonstrate the conflicting points of view that were in vogue in each moment and place. He believed that only by immersing ourselves in the customs, beliefs, economics, and traditions of the times would we be able to truly appreciate why different events transpired. He insisted that the flow of history has been far more complex than we generally imagine. Continue reading “Our Story”
All It Takes Is A Little Love 