How long does it take to forget our history? That is a question I think has particular relevance relative to current events. Observing the September 11th activities this past week, it seems like at some level we already have forgotten. Those who were adults on that fateful day still remember with clarity the events that happened. But our children who were not yet born then or were too little to remember, it is not a vivid memory, it is just a footnote in a history book or something they hear older people talking about.
I remember it as a time of great loss and the last time the country seemed to really come together with single purpose. Granted, that single purpose did not last for a long time but we were one nation with one purpose for a brief time, applauding those to rushed to the towers, being moved by the stories of courage and grieving with the stories of loss.
But in today’s world, that experience and learning will die with the generation who experienced it. There was a time where our schools would reinforce key events with clarity but priorities on learning have changed where patriotism and promoting pride in our nation are no longer a popular approach.
As I have been working on my third book in the Dreamer Series, I have been exploring the loss of history. In the story, there is some knowledge that is lost from the past which is hard to recover without a cycle of learning intact. When the government took over the school system, the new generations did not learn the ways of old, instead replaced with the approved teaching which subtracted areas that were not longer approved knowledge.
So, how long does it take to forget our history? Not long at all. A generation, maybe two.
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