What is the difference - history lessons and learning from history

There is a saying, "if you don't learn from history, you are bound to repeat it". I do not remember who said it but it is so true. When I was a young boy I hated history lessons because it involved tests and continuous efforts to learn all the difficult historical names, places and yes, dates. It was so tough for me. As a young boy I was more interested in having fun and playing. That was why I took the science combination when I appeared for the Matriculation exam. (this is like the Tenth grade in the USA, I think).

As I grew older, I became a voracious reader. I became interested in philosophy, politics, science, astronomy, physics, chemistry. At the same time I was also interested in arts subjects such as poetry, literature and yes History.

This time I had a new way of looking at history. I was now more interested in getting lessons from reading history. I was not reading history for the sake of passing exams. Furthermore, there was no teacher telling me, "you have to read this book, this is the prescribed text book."

I was my own teacher and I became my own task master. I first started reading about Burmese history, and read all the history books in the Burmese language that came my way. My favorite book in the Myanmar language was U Kala Maha Yazawin. Then I came across the Glass Palace Chronicle or the Hman Nan Yazawin. The prose was so good. As a young boy my Burmese was not that great, to put it mildly. However, as I grew older, I acknowledged this weak point and began reading more and more books in the Myanmar language, especially books written by well-known authors whose command of the Myanmar language was considered to be excellent. I also read the Bode Dawin written by famous Buddhist monk U Wiseitta. The Bode Dawin is about the life of the Buddha. His prose was superb.

So my point here is this. As you grow older, it does not matter whether you are able to remember names or places. What matters is this. You need to be able to draw lessons from the kings and from their lives. Of course, no country is perfect and Myanmar is no exception. There will always be good kings and bad kings. The thing is to learn from the bad mistakes of the bad kings and to learn from the good points of the good kings. That is what I mean by "learning from history".

Enjoy your history lessons.

Km