History Reversed

History should be taught in reverse order, starting from the present.

Minnow finds it easier to see the relevance of historical events by focusing on the present. She got this idea after falling in love with certain works in modern art and literature. Looking up the inspirations behind these works has taught her more about history than from years of learning the subject by starting with the Stone Age / Big Bang / Adam & Eve.

As an example, Minnow admires the Chinese exile writer Ha Jin. When she learned that Nabokov was a big influence on Jin’s writings, she began devouring Pnin and gorging on other works by the great Russian.

Another example: Minnow swam around and got seduced by the German architect Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavillion. She then read up on the Bauhaus movement that Mies advocated and subsequently drooled over Walter Gropius, the Ideal New Age Sensitive Man who founded the Bauhaus school. That led her to read up on related and preceeding artistic movements such as the Neue Sachlichkeit, Der Brücke, and Der Blaue Reiter.

Many fishes agree with Minnow on her theory. We only became interested in history after we graduated from fish bowls because after our transition into the ocean, we feel the urge to understand the root of all the dangers and excitement that engulf us. By starting from the present, with which we are emotionally involved, we find history more relevant and interesting.

We cannot reverse history, but we can reverse the order it’s taught.