Learning From The Past

When my kids complain about their history class or learning anything about history, I always tell them that if we don't learn from the past, we won't succeed in the future.  I am sure it is a quote that I have rewritten to suit my needs but it is something that I firmly believe.  So, with that, it was great to hear John Pugno, our Mayan calendar expert that telaported to our class on Tuesday night, say that the most important reason for studying history is to apply it today.  What  a great class!  Who knew that the calendar originated from Africa with the Olmec.  I don't think I even knew they were the first major civilization in Mexico.  I always thought the calendar came from the Mayans and it was interesting to learn that they only perfected it.   It was fun to learn how the calendar is set up and how the Mayans believe that we don't separate the individual from the environment and that everything in the calendar is associated with the elements, different frequencies, animals, etc.  And, who knew that 12/12/2012 is just the end of 16.4 billion years and that all their predictions have just come down to a time of rebirth not destruction. 

I talked with a teacher from work about what I learned.  She is from Texas and her family is Mexican descent and she didn't know about the things we were learning.  She had no idea about the Olmec or that the calendar came from Africa.  We discussed how little we both actually know about things that we thought we knew about.

I listened to one of my classmates last night, lament how bad she felt about not knowing and understanding a lot of what we were learning in class.  She feels bad how little she knows about her ancestors and her own culture.  It made me think about how little I know about my ancestors and my own history.  It's so important for all of us to learn from our pasts and our cultures.  Reading Gloria Anzaldúa's book Borderlands/La Frontera and reading about her suffering, her family and those around her and their experiences has made me realize how little I know about the world around me.  I love history and read about it all the time, but I feel like I have barely scratched the surface in learning about any culture, even my own.  It made me think how am I suppose to teach my own children about succeeding in their future in the world if I myself haven't learned enough from the past that will help me succeed in being a better world citizen?  How important is it for us to learn all of these things?  Why is it important to know about the Mayan calendar?  Is it?  How do we as a society even attempt to "fix" the problems if we don't even know where we are all coming from and understand each other?  I think that is a small portion of what Curtis is trying to relay to us.  That until we truly understand and know about a society and a culture, we can't just assume that we know.  We can't say we know about Mexico and Mexican culture because we eat Mexican food or because our neighbors speak Spanish.  We haven't even began to understand who we are let alone who our neighbors are.