For a brief second, on September 11, the limited world history I knew flashed before my eyes and I was, for the first time, scared of becoming a part of it. As I know many people did during those first uncertain moments after the news reached them, I wondered: am I safe? What is going on? Is this what it felt like when, so many years earlier, my grandparents were in Europe and found out their country was going to war?

On September 12, over the course of an hour and fifteen minutes, I started to learn what it felt like to watch history unfold. That day, we spent the first of several grade 12 world history classes examining a very brief history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and all of the sudden these battles from many centuries ago had relevance to me personally. I now had some understanding of where the pictures of burning skyscrapers on CNN had truly started.

So does history matter? Ask one of the people who lost a loved one on September 11. The truth is, they have experienced history in a way we all hope we never have to. Sadly, if we all knew our world history we'd also realize that people in other parts of the world deal with these kinds of tragedies every day, tragedies linked to their complicated past. September 11 resonated uneasily with all North Americans because, unlike people living in the Middle East, we're not used to seeing such destruction in our own backyard. It may not have happened in Canada, but that doesn't matter.

As Micheal Ignatieff says, most Western liberal democracies have very similar "common cultural capital", meaning similar versions of right and wrong and similar ideas about democracy. An understanding of the root of this "common cultural capital", as well as knowledge of the people who took it and shaped Canada into a nation with its own distinct cultural identity, are essential for any Canadian. Though often selectively presented in a one-sided, simplistic version of past events, history should be mandatory in all schools because it enables students to gain a greater perspective on how present events have been influenced by the past while at the same time equipping them with essential knowledge for the future.

In his first essay, when discussing his first year of teaching at UBC, Michael Ignatieff makes two very important points about the history taught in our schools. First of all, he says, it was the story of Canada, but only the "Canada" that existed, basically, within the borders of Ontario and Quebec. I realize that, although thankfully things have changed in the universities, the same problem still exists in Ontario schools. I remember learning about Upper and Lower Canada, the rebellions, and maybe even a bit about the Iroquois, but what about the rest of the country? What was happening in British Columbia and elsewhere? I doubt very much the inhabitants of the Yukon were aware of William Lyon Mackenzie's antics, yet were they still not living their own lives and creating their own history? Most importantly, are they not today a part of Canada and therefore Canadian history?

Second, Ignatieff laments the lack of "real people" included in the history. I wondered about this as well. My grandfather came over from the Ukraine after World War II and worked in the mines. Where does his story fit into our Canadian history? The answer, according to what I have learned in school, is that it doesn't. Both Ignatieff and Granatstein agree that it is essential to put such stories back into the classroom.

However, I also agree with Granatstein's assertion that it is still necessary to teach what he calls "institutional history", the kind students dread in high school. How else can future Canadian voters be expected to understand our system of government, make an informed decision come election time, or even make sense out of all the controversy spilling out of Ottawa? Who cares about all these things? Well, not all students may watch the news right now, but when a pack of uninformed voters send the wrong people to Parliament and we can no longer drink our water, find a doctor or look to the government for help, we may start asking ourselves if we should have paid attention. We will wonder if something like this has ever happened before.

On the other hand, I don't think it's necessary to ram our condensed British/French colonial history down the throats of all immigrants. On this point I disagree with Granatstein. His idea seems much too patriotic and, frankly, much too American. Canada is an amazing country and immigrants should have the chance to discover that for themselves and become proud citizens without having patriotism forced upon them in a classroom. By living and working here, they will have plenty of opportunity to develop their own love of this country while at the same time creating their own history, history that will hopefully one day make its way into the curriculum.

As Igantieff says, history is not a lesson in patriotism. It is the truth, which is "both painful and many-sided". Instead of presenting a carefully edited and pre-constructed version of this truth, complete with an acceptable opinion on the matter, we should give students the facts about what happened, why it happened and who was involved, and then let them decide the truth for themselves. I think that is partially what Granatstein means when he says that history "almost forces those who study it to write". In order to interpret what happened, students need to sit down and analyze the facts. This will force them to decide which stand to take if they were, for example, asked to take a position on a certain issue. Of course, I know from experience that doing just the opposite, arguing for the side you happen to disagree with, can also be an effective learning tool. Again, it reinforces critical writing and inquiry skills that students have little chance to develop anywhere else.

Without a doubt, history belongs in our schools. The question is what part of history should be taught and from what perspective. As I said, students should be encouraged to form their own interpretation of the facts without a textbook to provide the answer. Personally, my favourite part of history was unexpectedly discovering the origins of something I had known my whole life. For example, in my ancient civilizations course I discovered that a marathon got its name and approximate distance from an ancient city of the same name located near Athens. These small pieces of trivia make it easier for students to digest the big picture. When they see how past dates and events are connected to today's world, they are more receptive and realize what happened in the past is vitally important to the future. In a new Ontario curriculum where students must master complicated graphing calculators to pass math and present their science projects using the latest presentation software, it's still important that they learn about what shaped this world we live in.