History like philosophy has a rather inflated importance in peoples minds. Knowing say the names of Roman rulers is no more important than know the starting lineups for a 1980's sports team.
Hadrian is interesting not because he's Hadrian and he was once a Roman emperor. Hadrian is interesting because he commanded to be built an enormous military fortification. The history of that fortification includes his motivations and that of his generals. There may even be a relationship to the economic circumstances of the time, and there were likely some interesting political ramifications. That's what's interesting. Hadrian could just as well have been named Buttface and there would still be something to study there.
However, in a wider context the history of disease, the history of technology, and the history of systems of thought do more to shape our world than the history of people. Yet, sanitation for example is generally ignored relative to the story's of people.
Despite the old cliche, you're not particularly likely to be condemned to repeat mistakes made by Hadrian from not learning that aspect of ancient history, on account of not being a Roman emperor.
Most teachers are ingrates.
I only learned to start to love mathematics and history after reading the works of non-ingrates and learning to play with the concepts.
We are conditioned to despise subjects which lend themselves to play and fancy of thought by teaching them so awfully. I'm actually mad at all the money spent on the teachers and schools who taught me. I could've learned more from a smart guy in 6 months than 12 years of public schooling.
But in defense, a lot of learning is remembering symbols (aka facts and shit) and recognizing them. But it's like learning "1, 2, 3, 4, 5...". You don't get the magic of operators and functions.