That was today's KI tuition topic. I was confident, more so than I had ever been in awhile. I've slept well, my school work is in order and I've brought my literature back to the pre-Condition 'C' grade. My classmates are a lot of fun and I'm getting to know them better each day, laughing and learning. With this mood I stepped out of the house in optimism and arrived at Mr. Spencer's place.

We covered politics recently and despite my readings about Marxist theory and my history background, it was still rather unfamiliar. Today, we covered history, a field I'm more at home in. It wasn't too difficult. We covered truth, evidence, and society in how they all play a part in history. Because I asked for historiography notes as well, I managed to find out who it was that said "the history of the world is the history of great men" and of course, EH Carr with "history is a series of accepted judgements". Interestingly enough, he notes also covered historicism and prediction as well as how cultural relativism hampers historical inquiry, along with the problems of verstehen. This is not to say that history is rubbish, but rather our understanding of it is incomplete and even if we had chanced upon the 'true' version of how things were, I say we would not know it.

History deals not just with what occurred, but also why it occurred. Suppose I ask "why did Ben Low leave Mr. Spencer's place demoralised?" Simply stating "because Mr. Spencer asked "did you do your essay on whether government needs theory?" - no, that would only explain what occurred. We need to state that that question was asked because of the preceding lesson's content and Ben's unfamiliarity with it, and the fact that Ben couldn't finish the essay to his own satisfaction and when asked about it, he was reminded of his history of sudden and drastic essay failures. That recollection, coupled with his unfinished essay, is what CAUSED him to head home with a heavy heart.

As a consequence, he will not be revising today's KI lesson on historical inquiry, nor will he attempt the question "Are there no standards by which we can call historians right or wrong, good or bad?" lest it turn out another farce. Indeed, he has cooked two bowls of instant noodles and finished a whole can of pork in bean paste. That will be his dinner and comfort food, their saltiness replacing the salt of his heart's tears.

"What is history?" "Its just one fucking thing after another" - The History Boys (movie)