Society impoverished without study of history

Re: “Bring history back from the dead,” column, March 25. The most egregious misunderstanding in Neil Godbout’s column is that the study of history is boring and a waste of time, amounting to nothing more than the acceptance and repetition of facts and dates.

History is precisely about moving beyond simplified understandings, polarizations, opposites and conflict. But it’s easy to devalue something that one doesn’t understand because, as Godbout notes, the human brain is always looking for shortcuts.

If we were to use such a broad, dismissive stroke, one could also strike out music, theatre, philosophy, languages, and a whole host of other social sciences and liberal arts. And society would become severely impoverished as a result.

In a province that relies heavily on natural resources, good government policy should be to have as many choices as possible at the post-secondary level. The goal of developing engaged citizens who are critical thinkers is important, but so is the province’s ability to weather fluctuating economic conditions. Instead, in B.C. the government is favouring certain fields of study over others, and its selection criteria are short-sighted and biased.

The pervasiveness of declining postsecondary programming, especially outside the Lower Mainland, is the result of 16 years of underfunding — and the impacts go far beyond the academic discipline of history. Today, the outcome is clear: Access is being limited, programs and courses are being cut, waitlists are getting longer and the cost is being transferred to students and their families. Is that the education system we want in B.C.? George A. Davison, historian President, Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of B.C.