Hey, Kitos. Thanks for reading this essay for me.
It’s easy to ignore all the generations that lived before by saying:”Their life was completely different. There’s nothing I can learn from it.” Other than easy, it is also wrong. The following three reasons will strengthen my point of view.
To begin with, we’ve all been told at least once, that we should learn from other people’s mistakes, as life is too short for us to make all the mistakes possible. Well, if we look back to all those, who have lived before us, we’ll see that they’ve done a lot of the mistakes we’re likely to do in the present. Moreover, if we study those mistakes more carefully, we will avoid doing them and this way save ourselves a lot of failures.
Other than avoiding mistakes, we can also learn some useful strategies from the people who lived decades ago. What I mean by saying this is that great ideas were born before we were and we can use them to make life today better and more convenient. For example in my last philosophy class, we learned about a person, who had spent his whole life researching the character of the Bulgarian people. Instead of doing new researches now, we could use his work and try to change for the better.
Last but not least, in the history class, students do not only learn about what has happened in the past. They also see why it has happened and what it causes. This way they can be prepared and able to see the signs of a problem coming and if not able to prevent it, they will at least know what will happen next and which is the best way to get out of the situation. For instance, all the numerous wars in the past have happened for similar reasons and have similar causes. By examining those wars, we can prevent a lot of the possible wars in the present.
All in all, I strongly believe that the past hides all the answers. Examining it carefully can improve not only our lives, but also the ones of our children.
TOEFL listening lectures: A university lecture by a professor of Natural History