If we allow it to, the facts of history will illuminate our present and future, guide us along the contours of right, and keep us from the sirens of wrong.  Unfortunately, not everyone has the time, effort or sense of direction to study history, choose a time period and dig around in libraries to learn every aspect of its life and culture.  

However, if some people can do that, and use that knowledge to maintain some of the more elaborate, age-old institutions of the past, the rest of us may very well learn about ideals of self-restraint, deliberate action and finery for which past decades are known.

One way to accomplish that maintenance is through the restoration of old buildings.  One example of that restoration, perhaps, is a plan to restore a place called the Younkers Tea Room, which, until 2005, was located in the old Younkers building in downtown Des Moines.  

For 90 years, the Tea Room was a consummately elegant dining space downtown.  Indeed, the formality expected of its patrons would laugh at whatever “formality” most students can pull off when they visit elegant restaurants in Ames, such as Aunt Maude’s.

Most students probably have no desire to make such an elegant place as the Younkers Tea Room a routine part of their lives.  Even if they did, they probably do not have the means to do so.  Visiting once in a while, however, can be very educational.  In addition to just having fun by going out to eat at an upscale establishment, having to don a suit, escort a lady and mind your manners is an educational experience in itself.

For one thing, walking around in a suit or a dress, which is more bulky than normal street clothes, requires a young man or woman to be more aware of his or her surroundings.  Walking in dress shoes or heels, too, is a different experience, since they generally are less comfortable than everyday footwear and a person should take care not to scratch them on the pavement or step in a puddle if it’s raining.

But apart from those aesthetic features, however, visiting classy places occasionally encourages people to cultivate an ability to flit in and out of different social situations.  Having lunch, for example, at the Tea Room a few times a year (rather than every day, as we would love to do if we were born with a few silver spoons in our hands) encourages people to understand the differences between truly good things, average or everyday things and substandard things.

Take the freedom of speech, for example.  Bigotry and ignorance are no strangers to public debate, yet we tolerate them in our legal system.  Part of the reason for doing so is we hope, by allowing people to set hateful close-mindedness alongside rational argumentation, they will choose the latter.  With the proper instruction and guidance, an increased buffet of choices never did anyone any harm.

Exposure to a huge gap in quality from high to low allows people to appreciate what is good, and to work against what is bad.  Without this knowledge, we cannot expect to improve the world.  Without knowing the difference between the best of anything and the dregs of anything, we cannot choose the best.