PORTFOLIO: FINAL EXAM

“Why consider history? Simply because I am interested in the past? No, if one means by that… a history of the past in terms of the present. Yes, if one means… the history of the present.” This quote was said by a famous philosopher by the name of Michel Foucault. This quote means that when we think about history we must think about it in terms of learning from past events to try and learn from them and reach a better outcome for the present or the future. This is the reason why I believe that history is important. I see it as a way to create a better world. This is because when ever we are faced with a problem, if we go back in and history and look at past events then we can see what worked, and what didn’t, which will ultimately lead to a better solution to solving that problem. This also applies to problems faced from day to day, where you can go back and look at past mistakes you made and try to learn what the best way to solve them is. I have witnessed this many times throughout my history and writing combined study class and believe that by applying this theory I have indeed bettered myself.

I have used this theory of looking back to better myself countless times throughout this quarter to try and improve my writing. One experience that comes to mind is when we first started to use sources in our essays. I began by simply finding any relevant information and just putting it in my work because that is what I thought was right. Latter however when the grades were given back, it was obvious that I was not doing this correctly. At first I didn’t understand what I was doing wrong but eventually I started to apply the theory of learning from past mistakes and started to realize exactly what I was doing wrong. I started to understand that the way I used to do things in writing was not good enough anymore and that I had to start and learn how to truly find sources that would impact my work greatly. Another way that I have used this theory is by truly evaluating my writing process and trying to see what past habits I would need to change in order to improve my process as a whole. By looking at how I used to write an essay I narrowed in to what one real problem as a writer that I had. This problem was protracting. I would always do my essays at the latest possible time. When I truly realized how much this hindered the overall quality of my essay I started to actually change this habit I had. By looking back and seeing how much of a problem this truly was I finally was able to can it and started to procrastinate less which I believe did cause my grades to improve. When it came to writing I was able to apply this theory many times in order to truly better myself.

When it came to history however I applied this theory in a very different way. I used it to try look at past events and see how they relate to my life today. One event in history that I truly started to realize how it is affecting me today was the ratification of the constitution. By applying this theory of how the past can affect us today I was able to understand that this event truly did shape what today is know as America. I can see that without this we would not be such a united nation and that we would not be any where as powerful as we are unless this event did happen. So by using this theory and looking at this event in history I was able to come to the conclusion that when it comes down to it even in the present that when people are more equal everything is just more successful.

Overall as a student I feel that by using this theory is the only way that you can ever improve yourself in any way. This is because if you can not learn from past experiences then every decision you make will just be instinct, and that first instinct that you have usually is not the best way to solve anything. So by looking back at past events and learning from then it will in the end lead simply to a solution that will most likely benefit everyone. When it comes down to it there are so many different ways to interpret this quote and the questions that Foucault ask, that it can cause people to think different things about history. This is why I always interpret things in what ever way I feel can cause me to try and improve myself. And it is my belief that any other way that that this quote is interpreted ultimately will not make people truly learn from history at all. They will not know how to truly understand how to improve themselves and that will simply lead to people repeating past mistakes over and over again causing more chaos and destruction throughout the world.