WHY HISTORY IS BETTER TAUGHT BY WOMEN

History was always one of my least favorite subjects in school. Mostly is was all about the games men play, to prove who's got the biggest whangle-dangle. We would read about endless battles and maneuvers, regurgitate the names and dates back up onto our exam papers, then forget all about them as soon as we walked out the door.

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It was only by reading memoir and historical fiction -- stories written from a woman's point of view -- that I finally started to learn something. I may have known of the Civil War, but I understood nothing until I read Gone With The Wind. We may have been taught something about Viet Nam in school, but I didn't finally get it until a few months ago, when a friend loaned me The Lotus Eaters, by Tatjana Soli. I had class after class in which I was taught about Hitler and WWII, but I would never have had a clue were it not for The Diary of Anne Frank.

I suppose men write about what motivates them -- about how we ended up in these situations in the first place. It's the women, though, who teach us about what it cost -- about the price we would all pay, those on both sides, for generations to come. For instance, I knew a couple in Indonesia who had met each other in New York, where they were both members of a support group, not for Holocaust survivors, but for the children of Holocaust survivors. I never would have understood just how critical such a support group might be, had I not finally, after months of putting it off, got brave enough to open the book Sarah's Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay, then stayed up all night to finish it.

I suppose what I'm trying to say here is that our libraries are chock full of history by, for, and about men. But, when it comes to stories by, for, and about women? Precious few, my friends.  Precious few. I believe that every woman has a story to tell. You may think your life is anything but epic, and that may be true, but even the small bits are important. Without these details to provide the background for their stories, how would any of those epic tales I mentioned above have come to life? How will your kids and grandkids ever know what your life was like "back in the olden days", or what you thought, felt, or dreamed when you were their age, or anything about the traits or features you may have passed down to them? Write it down my friends. Write it all down. You have no idea just how important it might be, to those who will come after.

Need help getting started? Check out the Story Circle Network, one of the most amazing "support groups" ever created, for women with stories to tell!