History is a joke

[ScatterKitty]

AIBU to wish History lessons focused less on Henry VIII (or British monarchy in general) and more on the history which led to current conflicts and issues which affect current affairs?

Was anyone taught about the Israel/Palestine situation? Or the history of India or Pakistan? Or even Windrush and UK Black history?

How am I meant to explain to my kids what's going on in the world when we were never taught and all they learn about is British monarchy, Romans etc?

I've been trying to find a decent explanation online with no luck. Can anyone help?

My kids are uni age and empire wise they covered India and Pakistan and South Africa with no US. This was before GCSE age.

I don't think it's a joke. Yes it would be good to learn more modern affairs but they are current and political so where do you draw the line between studying history, modern day and politics? Schools equip children to become critical thinkers and have the skills to research so if a child is interested they can use those skills.

It is much easier to look at WW2 and show bad vs good as we know the end result. Had the end been different we would be learning a very different version of events. The outcome of current wars will determine how they are told to future generations if at all.

I mean even in very recent history such as mugabi the French support was key to him keeping power for so long.
Apparently the British empire was evil and the French are now part of the magical wonderful EU so are amazing. We'll ignore that their police walk around with machine guns and the vast differences differences treatment of the commonwealth vs French speaking ex colonies shall we?

don't understand why someone pointing out that in world history slavery is more than just the British and French empires?
Why is that bigoted?

It isn't but anti British bias is more important to some than actual history which might show that the "Goodies", as assigned by academic critical theorising, are as imperfect as everyone else in history.

I hated the boring history taught at school. However I have been able to read plenty of books about things I am interested in and visit many museums and ancient sights.

why don’t you teach them the history you are interested in?

Slavery is both ancient and endemic. Not bigoted to say that slavery is more than the British or French Empires, actually Portugal and Spain have a lot to do with the Triangular Trade as well as Arabs and African kings/chieftains. One corrective, the British Empire did not (after 1807) continue slavery but expunged it wherever it went, actually swapping land in Europe for Zanzibar just in order to shut down the slave trade there in the 1880s, for example. Also, those lovely Benin Bronzes in the BM were made with the profits of slavery, Benin (Dahomey) being one of the centres for the slave trade and the King of Dahomey fighting a war against the British to prevent the trade from being ended.

It's people like @Daftasabroom that struggle with nuance and facts that make teachers worry about these topics. No doubt she emails in complaining if any positives of empire are covered at all. It is increasingly difficult to teach geopolitics without bias or with all biases told more accurately as the left really truly believe in right think. And in only teaching things that are anti British. We need all views from original sources not to interpret everything from a neo Marxist dependency standpoint.

I find people struggle to understand Portugal and Spain were empires due to their relat8vely poor status in eu today.

It's bigoted when people try to minimise European Colonial Slavery by mis-comparing it to other forms and systems of slavery that are were/are extant across the world.

It's like comparing nuclear weapons with rifles.

@Boomboom22 what were the positives of "Empire"?

Daftasabroom. How did the African slaves get to the ports on the African coast?

Totally agree.

I think Germany have tackled post-WWII History education really well.

I'd like to see us be more open and honest generally about our involvement in some of the World's past and currents issues, eg slavery, land-stealing (particularly the US and Australia) and problems in the Middle East.

That whole thing about not wanting history to repeat itself is not just about Hitler!

They were hunted and trapped by European traders.

The abolition of slavery seems the biggest one. Spread of efficiency in systems the second.
That doesn't mean I support the empire just stating 2 things that are factual. It is value free. I agree neo colonialism through the wto and un and imf is definitely happening now.

Certain tribes ruled over others and had already been selling slaves across Africa for centuries. The Europeans provided a massive market that leaders took advantage of, it's not quite the way you are making out here.

So the empire basically industrialised slavery using enlightenment values like systems and procedures and mass transport and trade via shipping.
But they didn't invent the slavery or people as goods.

The same reflective values that eventually led to the abolition of slavery that the British led and USA and France were very anti.

Can you research together? Trip to the library in search of books, using different webpages and sites and realising they might have bias etc

surely doing something of this nature shows life long learning to your own D.C. and where to search for answers in the future

They were hunted and trapped by European traders.
you really believe that?

@Grammarnut I loved DD's Y7 teacher when I asked what topics would be covered and the face she pulled about British Empire. She said something along the line "There will be definitely no glorification in my lesson". She was a wonderful and very engaging teacher for DD.

I think too much is taught without context and impact on today's society. Luckily we are history nerds and do extend knowledge and push DD to think further than her textbook.

They were hunted and trapped by European traders.

They were not. White Europeans sickened and died quickly in Africa - malaria etc. Largely they came to the coasts where slaves had already been transported by other Africans and took them from there.

It's a fact.

When I taught Y6 we had to do the Ancient Indus Valley civilisation, the Aztecs and Victorian children amongst others. We did do Britain since 1945 and concentrated on the 60svwhuch was fun, but the bloody Aztecs?!? When there's so much they actually need to know to understand the world?

Try this book. I bet you won't because I suspect you will be unable to tolerate any challenge to your thinking around these matters. It's likely biased of course but meticulously researched and backed up and worthwhile if you're actually wanting a balanced discussion...

www.waterstones.com/book/colonialism/nigel-biggar/9780008511630

My children learned about evacuees and rationing in year 6. Learning about how children lived in the past is an interesting angle that makes history more interesting for that age group.

I agree that there's definitely some bits that could be replaced. Those topics could be replaced with a local history topic so you learn about something of significance that happened in your general area.