By: Julia Yang

This is my opinion on History Day, and my opinion only. You might feel different, and that’s alright.

For those of you who haven’t had, or know about History Day, let me give you a quick summary; History Day is a school event where students have to research an event in history and make a project about it, usually, a presentation board. After that’s done, everyone places in an open area with tables and everybody walks around to look at other projects.

With that out of the way, let’s continue.

I really don’t think History Day is all that helpful to a child’s education. I’ve already forgotten what I learned on my chosen event. The concept of History Day doesn’t make any sense to me – Why are we just learning ONE thing in our entire history? Or who has actually learned something and remembered it from it?

It just seems like a burden.

I know so many students and teachers that agree with me, so I’m not too sure why it’s still a thing we need to do.

National History Day says, “National History Day teaches critical thinking, writing, and research skills; prepares students for college, work, and citizenship; and inspires students to do more than they ever thought they could.”

History day didn’t help me with any of that. If anything, all it did was raise my stress levels. I did this project in middle school, so I didn’t even know what I was doing. By then, I had just learned what a presentation board was.

In the end, I don’t know why History Day exists. I found it irritable, boring, and stress inducing.