Blues legend Bobby Rush gave students at Dana Elementary School something very valuable.

Rush, 84, who has been recording music for more than 66 years, spoke to the students Monday as part of the Blues in the Schools Program, and has visited schools all across the state to share his stories and music with students.

Monday, he performed for the children, sang and danced with them and accompanied a young student as he sang for his classmates. More importantly, he told them stories about his life, which may have more impact on the students than anything else he did Monday.

It seems over the years people have slowly forgotten the importance of history in our lives except for certain special observances during the year, like Black History Month, which is observed during February. Blues legends like Bobby Rush, Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland, and historical figures like Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Alvin York, and military units like the Tuskegee Airmen are now but footnotes or totally unknown to many young people. They shouldn’t be. They are part of who we were and who we are as a nation.

That’s what makes visits like Rush’s and programs like the Commemorative Air Force’s Rise Above Traveling Exhibit and film on the Tuskegee Airmen that visited the Vicksburg-Tallulah Regional Airport in 2015 so important. They remind young people there is more to this country’s past than what happened last year.

We need more programs like Blues in the Schools, and we need an effort from area educators and leaders to bring people into the schools to tell students about their experiences growing up — what was it like growing up during the fight for civil rights; growing up during World War II — or people who have compiled histories of the area to talk to students about the lives of families or soldiers who survived the Siege of Vicksburg.

Our history is something we are slowly losing to a modern era. Rush needs to be commended for his efforts to meet and talk with children to pass on his memories to a younger generation. He’d want that.

“I’m just hoping that one day, these children will do the same thing I’m doing now as an entertainer, whether that’s as a musician, a teacher, a preacher, doctor, lawyer, whatever they want to be,” he said.