1 WHAT IS HISTORY?

I. Introduction

The word "history" has several meanings. It can mean everything that's ever happened
in the past. This is not very useful, however, because, until we get a time machine, we
cannot know everything that happened. Thus a second definition: history as the written
record of what happened in the past or put another way, history is what historians write.
But historians usually refer to their own body of writing as historiography, not history. A
written record depends upon primary sources, what the historian terms evidence. Out
of these fragmentary pieces of evidence, the historian constructs a plausible
interpretation of what happened in the past. At various times and places, people have
given a wide range of definitions, serious and cynical, for history.

II. Learning Objectives

∙ Recognize the importance of studying the history of a country.

∙ Distinguish the issues and challenges in Philippine history.

III. Lesson Proper

What is history?

It is a continuous and systematic narrative of past events as relating to a particular

people, country, period, person, etc. usually written as a chronological account.

It is a chronicle of records and studies the past and the legacies of the past in the
present.

Importance of Studying History

Revisiting and studying history is important because it allows us to know and appreciate
our past, which in turn allows understanding our present and the present will be our
foundation for the future.
Studying history can provide us a vision into our cultures of origin as well as cultures with
which we might be less familiar.

It will increase our cross-cultural awareness and understanding of things we do not

know from our past.

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If this subject History were taken with a multiple approach then it can explain a lot as
you look under different compass such as Psychology, Political Science, Sociology and
even Economics.

Philippine History

Some prominent Filipinos continuously conduct their research like Renato Constantino
who supposed that our Philippine History is a story of struggle

We need to re-evaluate some of our stories from the past to capture a clearer picture
of those events and the patriotism and heroism of those early Filipinos.

Another is the famous Filipino Anthropologist Felipe Landa Jocano who disputed Henry
Otley Beyer regarding Filipinos who descended from Negritos and Malays through
Beyer’s Migration Theory

According to Jocano, “It is difficult to prove that the first inhabitants of this country were
Negritos.”

Filipino Historian Teodoro A. Agoncillo quoted as saying “There is a great similarity

between legal evidence and historical evidence.”

The only difference lies in the fact that in legal evidence it is the judge who determines
whether the account of a witness is acceptable or not.

“The historian is a prosecuting attorney and defense attorney and the judge rolled all
into one, and he is the narrator and interpreter.”

A big part of how history is explained depends greatly on how historians plot and
narrate the historical facts.
Birth of Philippine History

According to H.O. Beyer’s Migration Theory, the history of the Philippines is believed to
have taken off with the arrival of the first humans using rafts or boats at least 67,000
years ago as the 2007 discovery of Callao Man suggested.

Negrito tribes first inhabited the isles and more groups later migrated to the islands like
the story of the Ten Bornean Datus. But the written record of the Philippine Islands
started with the coming of the Spaniards. Not because they had no history, culture and
literature before but many believed that Spaniards destroyed the earlier records as
completely as possible.

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The same scenario happened when the Philippines was under the American and
Japanese colonization. Many pre-colonial records were lost and were no longer
retrieved. Therefore much of what is known about pre-Spanish days is still insufficient.
There is still much to be uncovered. Others said that some of our recovered records
came from other countries which were in touch with the islands.

Murillo-Velarde Map

It was a hydrographical chart of the Philippine Island drawn

by Jesuit Father Pedro Murillo Velarde (1696-1753) and
published in Manila in the year 1734. It was the first and
believed to be the most important map of the Philippines.

It shows that our country that time was a vital part of Spain
and it illustrates the maritime routes from Manila to Spain and
to those colonies of Spanish Empire in the New World.

Problems in Studying Philippine History

Students lack interest in studying our Philippine History due to the following possible
reasons:

- Some teachers do not dig deeper in the discussion of Philippine History to

hopefully trigger enthusiasm of students about our history.
 - Lack of training and seminar to opportunities for both teachers and students
learning together about Philippine History.
- Presentation of topics in textbooks, at times, no longer fit the interest of the
students.
- The pedagogy of teaching Philippine History must help students become
critical thinkers rather than being just passive recipient of lessons.

IV. Learning Activities

Activity No. 1:
Supplemental Reading: Why Studying History is Important (and Why It Is Fun) Source:
https://frogtutoring.com/blog/327/why-studying-history-is-important-and-why-it-is fun

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1 WHAT IS HISTORY?

Chances are you’ve had to take at least one history class before, and your thoughts at
the end might have gone something like “this is boring - when am I ever going to need
to know when the Battle of Hastings happened?” (1066, by the way). The history we are
taught in our classrooms can feel like an endless barrage of names and dates, battles
and wars, historical figures and political leaders. Who cares?

What you’re learning isn’t history. Sure, those things happened, and yes they’re
important, but history is so much more than just an event and a date, and maybe a war
here and there. History shows us why things happen and how things happen; how we
go from knights and castles to tanks and bunkers; how empires are built and how they
are town down; how states are founded and how they fall. History is a story: history is the
story of conquest and of conquerors, of empires and emperors, of exploration and
adventure, of love and betrayal, of trust and deception. History fills our human need for
tales about ourselves and about the things that we have done. History is every bit as
fantastic and as exciting as a novel. You need look no further than the Russian Tsars, the
Egyptian Pharaohs, or the French Revolutionaries to see that history is a thrilling tale.

What does that make history then? History is, in short, the study of change, and this
makes it one of the most useful of disciplines. The world is driven by change, which is
continuously shaping our lives in ways that we don’t even realize. Change affects us
from the highest levels of governments and countries down to the most trivial details.
Studying history is the key to understanding how these forces shape our lives today - the
past is the key to the present. History provides context for everything that we see
around us today, and the key to understanding the world we find ourselves in now is to
look at how it came to be. Here are ten reasons why history is crucial to our education.

1. History helps us understand other cultures. Why are other cultures different from ours?
Why is it that some cultures are antagonistic with each other, while others coexist in
harmony? Why are there different customs, different traditions, and different religions
from culture to culture? The answer to all of these questions lies in history. Without
history, it is impossible to understand how cultures come to be. As the study of change,
history identifies the driving forces behind cultures. A culture’s history is integral to the
shared identities of its members, and you can’t see the full picture of a culture without
understanding the history behind it.

2. History helps us understand our own society. Similarly to how we can understand
others through the study of history, we can also come to understand ourselves. Why do
we do things the way we do? How did these social structures and traditions come to
be? Looking at history in this light illuminates the forces acting on our own society
through history and into the present. The student of history draws on politics, sociology,
economics, and anthropology, all of which feed into the history of individuals and
societies. In order to successfully navigate our society in the present day, it is essential to
know what came before, the driving forces of change that shape our lives, and the
individuals of the past who shaped our society.

3. History helps us understand our own identities. History isn’t just a collection of famous

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names and events woven into a story that takes place in the past. History is the story of
the past, and of everybody in it. Every individual had a place in shaping the historical
narrative we know today, and every individual today has a place in molding the history
that unfolds today. In order to understand our place within society, within our culture,
and even within our own family, it is essential to realize that our present is the product of
what came before, and the past provides a context for everything we do as an
individual. Knowing where you fit into history gives you a context for yourself, your
culture, and your world today. History gives you an understanding of your own identity.

4. History builds citizenship. Why are we good citizens? Because we have an

understanding of a shared past and a communal identity, and we get this shared
experience through our common knowledge of our history. Learning about how we
came to be as a community informs how we see ourselves as a group in the present
day, and we do this through knowing our history. Knowing how our shared experience
came to be and what has defined us in the past gives us a reason to work towards a
better society today. This is why American history is taught in school: it tells us why we
are American, how we got to be American, and what it means to be an American
today.

5. History gives us insight into present-day problems. Without understand the root of a
problem, there is no hope of solving it. This is what history does: it identifies the driving
forces of society, of government, of individuals, of change, and it traces these features
of the past to contemporary features of the world. We can’t confront international
crises without one of the most basic tools in our belt, namely understanding how the
crisis arose and what forces shape them. Conflict cannot be resolved without
comprehending the historical roots of a situation. If we want to stand any chance of
confronting the pressing issues of our world, we need to start at the root of the problem:
we need to know history.

6. History builds reading and writing skills. In many ways, history is as good as an English
class at developing reading and writing skills because it employs many of the same
techniques, as well as adding several other elements. Studying history involves reading
different sources - be they documents, letters, or even novels - and pulling out themes
and patterns, motifs and details, and making sense of what these features tell us about
the past. This is similar to the task of the English student, but even more, history adds
layers of politics and social change that inform the modern world. Writing is the vessel to
communicate the exciting discoveries and keen observations of the history student,
and as such history teaches us to read thoroughly and write well.

7. History builds interpretation and analysis skills. History is based on the records left
behind in past decades and centuries, so the study of history is inherently an act of
analysis and interpretation. Similarly to how one reads classic literature in order to
understand something about the author and society from which it originates, one looks
at historical documents and letters, and indeed novels and art, to understand the time
period that created them. This gives the history student several skills that carry over into
every walk of life and are among the most useful tools to carry into the world. We learn

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 how to compare conflicting interpretations and identify biases. We learn how to see
an issue from multiple perspectives. We learn how to assess evidence and determine
its value. A good understanding of history will leave any student with this
indispensable inventory of skills that can carry anybody far in life.

8. History helps us understand change. History is the study of change. The world
around us is in a constant state of change, and understanding the role of change in
society plays a pivotal role in being able to interpret the world that we see now.
Without understanding why things used to be different and how they interacted to
shape one another, it is impossible to get a complete picture of the here and now.
History will give us a firm grasp on why things change, the mechanisms that drive
change, the significance of some features of change to others, and the different
magnitudes of change. Conversely, by giving us an understanding of change,
history also helps us comprehend stability and the continuities that exist from past to
present and from society to society. In short, history is a tool to understand the world.

9. History allows us to learn from the past. “Those who don’t know history are doomed
to repeat it.” This oft-quoted saying tells a great truth: history has patterns. One of the
continuities in history is the mistakes that are made century after century as people live
in pursuit of the same self-interested motives. Wars are fought for the same reasons.
Regimes topple through the same shortcomings. Riots and revolts accompany the
same abuses. Men and women take stands against the same oppression time and
time again. This is why history is essential to the repertoire of the politician and the
ruler, because understanding the failures of the past puts us one step closer to
addressing the shortcomings of the present.

10. History is the greatest of stories. History has so many practical uses that it’s easy to
forget that history is also a story, a thrilling adventure that takes place across the
world and through the ages. This story encompasses the great empires of China,
Rome, and Britain, the conquests of Alexander the Great and Napoleon, the
explorations of Marco Polo, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. It’s a story of
romance in the royal courts of Europe, of honor in the Japanese samurai, and of
spycraft in the American Revolution. There is the devastation and tragedy of two
World Wars, the rise and fall of dictators and oppressors, and the fight for rights and
liberties in a world of abuses. History is a tale that spans the entire human experience,
and it is a tale in which we all have a part to play.

Activity No. 2:
Studying History: The Good and the Bad.
In this activity, you are expected to list down the pros and the cons of studying History.
You can write your answers down on a whole sheet of paper. Consider all the things
that were discussed in this chapter.

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Activity No. 3:
Picture Perfect.
Browse your social media profile (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) Scroll down and
try to look for one of the oldest picture or post on your profile (around 5+ years ago).
Reflect on the picture or post and try to recall its significance in your present life.

V. Assessment/Reflection

Reflection No. 1:
On a personal note, why do you think is it important to look back at the history of our
country? How does it affect our present lives and how will it affect our future?

Rubrics of the Reflection Paper:

3 - Exceptional 2 - Proficient 1 – Needs
Improvement

Focus Clearly states Implies but does Does not state or

the purpose, not clearly state imply the
does not the purpose,
diverge from purpose, does diverges from
the topic not diverge the topic
from the topic

Content Demonstrate a Demonstrate a Lacks

thorough self self reflective development
reflective analysis and self-
analysis supported by reflection, does
supported by specific and not include a
specific and illustrative summary and has
illustrative details, draws insufficient details,
details, draws conclusions does not make
conclusions and makes connection to
and makes connection to future plans
 connection to future plans
future plans

Organization Presents the Presents the Presents the

reflection in a reflection in a reflection in a
compelling, well organized poorly-
highly organized manner. organized
manner manner.

Conventions Uses articulate Uses Uses slang and

and appropriate appropriate improper word
language, proper language, choice. Needs
word choice, word to improve
and sentence choice, and grammar.
structure. Very sentence
little to no structure. Few
errors in grammar. errors in
grammar.

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VI. Self-Test

Answer the following questions comprehensively.

1. What is History to you?

2. What is the significance of the Murillo-Velarde Map to the Filipinos?

3. Get a present Philippine Map and compare it to the Murillo-Velarde Map. Give
your five (5) observations.

4. Give two (2) possible reasons why some students nowadays do not have interest
in studying Philippine History.

VII. Post-test

All post-tests shall be given by the instructor.

 VIII. Resources

Rhodalyn Wani-Obias, Aaron Abel Mallari, Janet Regindin-Estella. The Life and Works of
Rizal: C & E Publishing, Inc. 2018

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