Letter: More history needed

By Letter to the Editor on March 13, 2021.

Dear editor,

I have been assisting my grandson, in the United States, work through his history lessons.

The study of the decline, then collapse, of the Roman Empire is a chilling reminder of similarities to our age. It has also reminded me of what studies we are missing in Alberta schools.

Most historians suggest the collapse of the Roman Empire resulted from three causes:

1. The Roman people became singularly fixated on self indulgence.

2. Roman leadership arrogantly engaged in corruption and narcissism.

3. There was an inability to effectively govern the multiple distant regions and cultures with competing interests.

Which of these does not apply to Canada today?

Unfortunately, we have generations of students in Alberta who have not studied history in any meaningful way. Sadly, our children do not have the knowledge to use history to form the questions that may alert us to our own potential disaster. Instead, we are myopically focused on ‘we,’ ‘woke,’ ‘climate,’ and tearing down our forefathers in hopes that Canadian children will become ‘agents of change.’

Without addressing the three basic societal failings of the Romans, in our time, the change will be more, not less, strife in future.

Richard Dietrich

Medicine Hat

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