Why history is important

The last time I covered World War II Days, all the way back in 2017, I was mistaken for a sixth grader.

This week, I returned to the scene at Cam-plex Energy Hall, and it was a joy to watch hundreds of students — there were 645, according to the Rockpile Museum’s numbers — be engaged in learning about history.

They wrote letters, they learned how to march, they got to handle unloaded weapons and put on heavy backpacks, they worked on an assembly line, they used old portable radios and sat in the driver’s seat of a Jeep.

They were locked in as the dozens of volunteers told them about everything that went into defeating the Axis powers.

This learning won’t necessarily show up in a test score, but that doesn’t make it any less important.

The more these kids learn about history, the better. Just reading, writing and arithmetic are not going to cut it. Yes, they’re important, but there’s more to education than those three subjects.

There are some people who would prefer if we didn’t teach history, because it’s uncomfortable.

But war is a huge part of our history, and war is uncomfortable. And yes, it might be hard for some of these sixth graders to understand that decades ago, teenagers just six or seven years older than they are were sent overseas to fight for and die for this country.

Children are smarter than many adults give them credit for. And the more they know about why we fought World War II, the less likely they’ll fall for the extremist rhetoric that’s made a comeback over the last decade.

Last fall, a bunch of leaders of Young Republican groups got into some hot water after their pro-Nazi and Hitler-worshipping messages were leaked to the public. Our esteemed Vice President J.D. Vance downplayed the significance of these texts, writing them off as edgy jokes.

“Kids do stupid things, especially young boys,” he said. Yes, young boys, who are in their 20s and 30s, who have fully developed brains (in theory) and are capable of making their own decisions. I wonder which side he roots for when he watches “Saving Private Ryan.”

There’s quite a bit of support for World War II’s biggest losers on the internet, especially on Elon Musk’s social media platform, but it happens here too. During a “No Kings” protest in Gillette last summer, there were counter-protestors who, jokingly or not, showed up in support of Hitler. It was sad to see, and it reflected poorly on our community.

The Greatest Generation would be appalled. They didn’t sacrifice their lives fighting to defeat a genocidal maniac so that decades later Americans would idolize that very man.

If today’s sixth graders understand why we got involved in World War II, maybe they’ll be less likely to follow in these people’s footsteps. Maybe they’ll make the Greatest Generation proud.