Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: We abandon the teaching of history at our peril (UK)
[Yasmin Alibhai-Brown writes a weekly column in the Independent.]
History may soon become extinct in our secondary schools, go the way of domestic science and handwriting classes, only less missed and less lamented than either. A major new study by the Historical Association and teacher training experts found that three out of 10 comprehensives no longer bother to teach the subject, which isn't part of the core curriculum after the age of 13. Only 30 per cent do GCSE history.
The researchers interviewed 700 history teachers from almost as many schools. Most British kids can name every contestant appearing in The X Factor, but as we have seen from other research, a substantial number don't know about the Battle of Trafalgar, 20 per cent believe the Germans, Spanish or Americans once occupied Britain and some think Winston Churchill was the first man to walk on the moon.
And who were the dunces who decided to make this subject optional? Why the Tories when last they ruled over us.
That was then. Today's Tories are ardent History Boys, eager to return to the days when the past was hammered into the heads of the young, mostly in the form of dreary facts – dates, kings, wars and treaties– or embellished tales of glory to give indigenous British children an inheritance of innate superiority.
Michael Gove, Shadow Schools Secretary for Children, has been banging on about this for a while and earlier this year the Tory Andrew Rosindell raised the issue in parliament, but regrettably turned a serious debate into brassy, right-wing patriotism: "The peoples of these magnificent British Isles along with the numerous and unique British territories around the world have a rich and proud history like no other".
Really, sir? So Fat Henry and his sorry wives or Churchill only have to stand up to blank out the histories of Egypt, Turkey, Mexico, Austria, Greece, India, France, Iran and other old lands?
Many of us who long passionately for the reinstatement of history as a core GSCE subject are now concerned about the substance and purpose behind the Tory plans to do just that. They have a burning desire to use history as a feelgood hallucinogen, get its band of revisionist stars like Andrew Roberts to head up the cavalry, to lead us back to the future. As this prospect approaches, at times I think the current state of ignorance may prove to be less harmful. History matters and its narratives are complex. When politicians exploit these and turn them into simple propaganda – as they did in Bosnia and Rwanda – the results can be lethal...
Read entire article at Independent (UK)
History may soon become extinct in our secondary schools, go the way of domestic science and handwriting classes, only less missed and less lamented than either. A major new study by the Historical Association and teacher training experts found that three out of 10 comprehensives no longer bother to teach the subject, which isn't part of the core curriculum after the age of 13. Only 30 per cent do GCSE history.
The researchers interviewed 700 history teachers from almost as many schools. Most British kids can name every contestant appearing in The X Factor, but as we have seen from other research, a substantial number don't know about the Battle of Trafalgar, 20 per cent believe the Germans, Spanish or Americans once occupied Britain and some think Winston Churchill was the first man to walk on the moon.
And who were the dunces who decided to make this subject optional? Why the Tories when last they ruled over us.
That was then. Today's Tories are ardent History Boys, eager to return to the days when the past was hammered into the heads of the young, mostly in the form of dreary facts – dates, kings, wars and treaties– or embellished tales of glory to give indigenous British children an inheritance of innate superiority.
Michael Gove, Shadow Schools Secretary for Children, has been banging on about this for a while and earlier this year the Tory Andrew Rosindell raised the issue in parliament, but regrettably turned a serious debate into brassy, right-wing patriotism: "The peoples of these magnificent British Isles along with the numerous and unique British territories around the world have a rich and proud history like no other".
Really, sir? So Fat Henry and his sorry wives or Churchill only have to stand up to blank out the histories of Egypt, Turkey, Mexico, Austria, Greece, India, France, Iran and other old lands?
Many of us who long passionately for the reinstatement of history as a core GSCE subject are now concerned about the substance and purpose behind the Tory plans to do just that. They have a burning desire to use history as a feelgood hallucinogen, get its band of revisionist stars like Andrew Roberts to head up the cavalry, to lead us back to the future. As this prospect approaches, at times I think the current state of ignorance may prove to be less harmful. History matters and its narratives are complex. When politicians exploit these and turn them into simple propaganda – as they did in Bosnia and Rwanda – the results can be lethal...