Dear young people,

Young people don’t know enough about history and don’t care to know about it. This is normally the opinion of the older generations, but even I notice it.

Older people complain about us constantly. My relatives have always said, “Millennials are so lazy, millennials don’t work hard.”

Those stereotypes are old news and not always true, but this time they are right.

I can’t tell you how many times I would mention a historical figure or event and get funny looks from people accompanied by, “Who’s that?” or “What is that?”

Everything from war and crime to pop culture and music. Who fought in World War II? What happened in Jonestown? Who was the first Bond? Who were the four Beatles?

I feel like if I were to mention Jim Jones in conversation people would say, “You mean the rapper?”

I’m not saying that I’m an all-knowing millennial, but I know who won the Civil War.

A student group on the campus of Texas Tech released a video in 2014 asking students questions about the United States and its history. The answers were, in short, scary.

I was watching a TV show about the Menendez brothers and my roommate walked in and starting watching it with me. She asked what it was about and I told her. She had never heard of them or what they did. She’s a criminal justice major.

How can we fix this?

Start with something you like. If you like agriculture, research the history of it. If you like music festivals and drugs, research them. I started doing this when I was a freshman in college. If you don’t recognize a name or a phrase, Google it. Find something that interests you and study the history of it.

Teachers…listening?

Show students documentaries in class, have them take notes. Encourage them to watch documentaries in their spare time. Ones that aren’t boring or outdated. CNN produced a series of documentaries for each decade starting with The Sixties. They explore war, crime, technology, entertainment and more. I know this doesn’t go very far back, but a lot of important events happened within those years.

Some people will say it’s all in the past, so you don’t need to know about it. The past is the past, and the future is more important.

Wrong. Yes, the future is important, but you have to know where you came from to know where you’re going.

Frankly, it’s embarrassing. Older generations fought for us to learn history in this country, and many people died for it. Part of it is about honoring their memory. We need to know where we came from to know how far we’ve come.