Connecting the Past with the Present

This edition of the Tartan focuses primarily on the history department and the process by which our students explore and learn to analyze the events of the past, and their relationship to events of today. As a member of the history department, I am especially partial to this discipline and find myself engaged in a perpetual struggle to apply lessons of the past to the historic events that seem to be unfolding before our very eyes on nearly a daily basis. I will confess that I was not always that interested in history as it seemed to me initially that there was little or no connection to the momentous events of the past and my life in the here and now.

Then, I came across the famous quotation from Spanish-American Philosopher, Essayist, Poet and Novelist George Santayana who said, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” (I actually think I first heard it as, “Those who refuse to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.”) Either way, this definitely made sense to me, and ever since, I have tried personally and with my students to connect the past with the present and learn from the successes and failures of those who have gone before.

Today, we are part of a world community where events seem to be happening at lightning speed and change is taking place in ways that will have lasting impact on our country and our world. It may well be too early to look to the lessons to be learned from the rapidly changing landscape in the Middle East, but we do know for certain that the world will be a decidedly different place once the dust has settled and order, however constituted, is restored.

How this all applies to St. Margaret’s and our history department remains to be seen, but just as I truly love teaching my constitutional law class in the midst of a perpetual debate about the law, individual rights and the well-being of the community, so too does the drama in the Middle East provide us with extraordinary opportunities to link the present with the past. In some very special way, these events seem to have particular relevance to our students in that much of what continues to unfold is in large part the result of a desire for change by a generation of young people connected by modern day technology and a determination to create a better world for themselves and their families. It is at once exciting and unsettling, but it is undeniably history in the making.

In the weeks ahead, it is my hope that we will have the opportunity to come together as a school community to share thoughts and learn more about the unfolding dynamic in the Middle East. In the meantime, this edition of the Tartan and the Tartan Talk on March 10 should provide a thoughtful understanding of the manner in which we strive to make history come alive and connect the events of the past with the issues of today.