If you ever attended school you were supposedly taught things like algebra, chemistry, language arts and history. But how often did you ever care? How often did you want to learn, and how often did you fully understand what you were being taught?

More commonly than not, school systems drive their students into a realm of intellectually exhausted apathy. Assignments are done, books are read, facts are memorized - all without anything being "learned." (This is, of course, not an all-encompassing statement, as exceptions always exist.)

Education should not be a system of quick cramming and memorization. It is my understanding that we students are provided with such an extensive education covering many, many topics so as to give us a steady platform of worldly understanding. In history, we are all briefly taught the facts of hundreds of wars, movements, peoples and governments. Tragedies are busy bookwork and revolutions are hurriedly typed essays. I suppose then that the goal of understanding was deemed a regrettable but expendable sacrifice - quantity over quality.

Jan. 24 was the opening date of the Northwest Asian American Film Festival, one of Seattle's several great and eclectic events that parade unnoticed right through our own backyards. I, as a young Asian woman aspiring to become a name in the film industry, eagerly nabbed a few tickets for my parents and me. I was nervous, unsure of what to expect and wanting to make a good impression. As it turned out, my anxiety was needless; it was an open and welcoming community. Yet it still took several gentle shoves from my parents to persuade me to approach a few of the attending directors and filmmakers.

One of these was Ham Tran, director, writer, producer and editor of "Journey from the Fall." Instantly fond of his relaxed and generous personality and floored by the preview shown that night of "Journey from the Fall," I attended its screening the following night.

I felt so cool when Tran actually waved at me. He is a complete celebrity in my book, and he waved at me. On the waiting list for tickets, I had ample time to schmooze in the lobby. It was surreal: meeting actors, writers, directors, producers, editors and so on. (Some of this "meeting" was, admittedly, a few exchanged words or even pointing, but a lot was full-blown conversation.) It was a dense crowd, and I loved every minute of it.

There was a wonderful sense of community: Asian filmmakers and media personnel banding together for the betterment of Asian prominence and reputation in pop media culture. The Asian film movement is definitely a group effort, an all or nothing sort of deal. I was given cards, advice, tips of the trade and, above all, promises of friendship.

Think of it this way. If your best friend spent countless days and dollars organizing a fund-raiser for the local battered women's shelter, you wouldn't ask to get in for free just because your friend had organized it. You would pay the entrance fee and probably put a little extra in the donations basket because it's for a cause that your best friend is promoting and he or she would do the same for you. That's what people in a community do; they look out for each other.

The movie, having previously won 12 film festival awards, was beautiful - gradually revealing the tragic and yet powerfully triumphant story of the Vietnamese people after America withdrew from the Vietnam War through the trials of a single family whose misfortune it was to have been on the side of the South Vietnamese. It is a story that had been buried by bureaucracy and fear and effectively hidden from many textbooks. This, I thought with awed heaviness, is true history.

"Journey from the Fall" stuck with me. History is written by the winners. Rarely is the losers' story of struggle, suffering, survival and achievement ever told. I won't forget what I saw. The characters may have been fictitious but the story, meaning and impact were not.

The history we are taught in schools has degraded into numbers and faceless names. I feel nothing when skimming the dry words of my textbook. What understanding could I possibly gain from that? The famous quote of George Santayana says that, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Looking at the United States now, I think that we need to re-evaluate just how and what we learn. Not just the future but the present as well is depending on it.

Kyra-lin Hom may be reached at kl_hom@yahoo.com