In “The History Teacher,” poet Billy Collins portrays a professor who tries to shield his students from the harsh truth of reality. This teacher lies about past occurrences that have had a negative effect on the world, such as wars and drastic climate changes. The poem suggests that the teacher creates these alternate, brighter stories in order to protect his students so that they do not experience sadness, pain, and suffering during their lives. However, it is ironic that the students that the history professor is attempting to shield from cruelty make other kids’ lives miserable by bullying innocent children. While the history teacher does harbor good-hearted intentions, the result of his teaching methods is not positive. The teacher walks home everyday obliviously thinking that his students will continue to believe his stories, and therefore, they will lead happier lives. However, the professor is doing his students a disservice by creating a non-existent, fairytale-like world. Through this work, Billy Collins urges readers to gain knowledge of events from earlier times, especially wrongdoings and evil deeds completed in the past. If humans are not aware of mistakes made in the past, history will simply keep repeating itself, and therefore, bad situations will keep reoccurring. The only way that individuals can learn to be compassionate is if we are exposed to issues that cause us to feel empathy. Once we are exposed to the tragedies that the human race produces, we can strive to change the world for the better and break the cycle of repetitive wrongdoings.