Teaching History Through Fiction

Sua Shin
Portola Middle
8th Grade

History takes a big part in education. Students learn the history of their state, country, and the world since their start of education. They learn who, when, where, what, why, and how an incident occurs in the past. As the world’s goal is to not repeat its mistakes again, many educators found ways to teach the uninteresting history to the spiritless students. Historical fiction once again steps into students’ lives.

Firstly, historical fiction is a type of fiction that has a plot that takes place in the past. It can tell a story about the real events of history through non-existing characters, or fake events with the real-life settings and real characters. These days, historical fictions are considered as one of the teachers‘ sources of education to attract lifeless students back to history class.

The most biggest fails of educators in teaching history is making the students bored. They mostly have not much interest in learning the subject. They have to read the endless textbook that lists all the facts that happened in the past, line after line. But a good historical fiction can motivate students. It can save them from their boredness and leave a footprint in their brains as a fun story. Many people say that fiction is not good for learning facts. However, the main point of using historical fiction is to teach generally what happened in history, not the specific details of the story’s characters. History is meant to be learned to not repeat itself, not to learn all the things that happened in the past just for education.

On the other hand, historical fiction can also disturb students’ education. Fiction is supposed to be made-up stories, so there may be authors who present artificial historical events. There will also be students who will believe in those events, making their beliefs very dangerous. However, the actual textbook can point out the real facts and inform the students the true history, letting them trust the certain education. Therefore, there are advantages and disadvantages of historical fiction and non-fiction. If teachers are going to utilize the fictions, they should be careful to choose the right book for the students. Every book holds a different story, meaning, and lesson, so schools should inform students the trustworthy education.

One Comment

1. kelly

   November 26, 2017 at 12:30 PM

   yes..I like the basic concepts behind Second Life but it seems incredibly outdated and when I played it was intensely non-intuitive / user friendly to an extent that made EVE look like a game for toddlers. thanks from
   togel online

   Reply