History Case

History is the story of our past. Studying history is crucial in understanding our present world because our history is the reason why our world has become what it is now. A common misconception about history is that it is a serious topic which can be learned only by people at the right age when actually history should not be exclusive group of people or limited by a certain age requirement. This is because history involves our society therefore our whole society must be aware and this includes children. Thus, it's possible to teach history not just to adults but also to children by presenting it to them in a manner that they can relate to. The book "Upin and Ipin: Why study?" is an effective introductory tool for children in helping them understand complex matters such as history in their own language.

The main point of the book is Japan's conquering of Malaysia. It was a good choice to use Upin and Ipin who are Malay children characters that are popular in children. This was an effective choice for the audience targeted are children and the main characters are also children thus making it accessible for audience to relate and understand their predicaments and life. Furthermore, they were able to simplify and made a complicated topic, lively and easier to digest for the targeted audience, which are children since children have a very short attention span. On the other hand, though the book was easy to understand, it was not direct to the point. It delved on other topics such as the importance of Racial Harmony and one's filial piety. This can be solved by simply shortening the span of the book and continue to the main topic instead. In addition, this book is a literary expression of one's account of the history of the conquest of Japan in Malaysia; because of this, this book is open to one's interpretation. With this, different point of views on the said topic can be formulated and this is since we all know that history varies from one person to another. Hence, history is not just one person's account. However, this also a weakness since it might lead to over interpretation or misinterpretation. History, as we all know, can never be free from biases; this is also evident in this book since the writer of the story is imposing his opinions on the readers. Also, the book did not cite any sources and this is a con since history must be credible and the credibility of a certain literary piece is based on its sources.

With these, it can be said that the medium used to present history is crucial to understanding history. The use of "Upin and Ipin" as a tool of communicating history to children is efficient due to the fact that the kids are familiar to these characters and this can trigger their interest. Teaching history to kids is essential since this will help them understand current situations since history molded our present society. It is by learning from our history

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