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AIBU?

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Original poster

to think it is outrageous that our children are not taught the truth about Britain's history?

71 replies

OneStroke · 05/09/2009 00:40

Why aren't our children taught about, for example, the Biafran War, the effects of colonization, the legacies that these actions leave today?

It should be part of the national curriculum and if it was many people would not be as ignorant and complacent about their lives as they are.

Just a thought.

OP posts:
IdontMN2makecopyforlazyjournos · 05/09/2009 08:40

What frankly said.

There's a far wider debate here about what children are taught in history lessons. At secondary school for GCSE I studied European history from 1850 to 1960, which was in effect:

The Russian revolution and birth of USSR
Germany 1918 - 1945
A little about about post war international relations (in Europe) and the Cold War

for A level I studied:

USSR (again)
The Nazis (again)
Spanish civil war
International relations (again)

I have fortunately a far wider interest in history now but it certainly wasn't fostered at school.

BonsoirAnna · 05/09/2009 08:41

There is just far too much interesting history for GCSE/A level to cover it all.

BonsoirAnna · 05/09/2009 08:43

Oh God, the Spanish Civil War is so irrelevant to the ROW. I don't know why on earth it is so popular a topic in history lessons. I studied it at university in far too much depth.

TheDMshouldbeRivened · 05/09/2009 08:45

'then came WW1, which America won, then WW2, which America again won,'

hehe, yeah I noticed that in the US when I lived there. And the school kids had no idea the UK had been bombed, or the Blitz or the Battle of Britian or that anyone else had been involved really apart from the US.

But there's so much history and so little time!

l39 · 05/09/2009 08:50

I always thought the history curriculum was mostly arranged so the history teachers got to go on lots of school trips. Iron Age? Let's go to Maiden Castle! Romans? Rockbourne Roman villa! The Rufus stone! The Mary Rose! And lots and lots about the Black Death. Plus a few dressup days as Victorians ( at stately homes) and evacuees in cardboard gasmasks.

Original poster
OneStroke · 05/09/2009 08:50

Its good to know I am not alone.

No wonder we have so many racial and cultural problems in our society when most people have no idea how the majority of countries came into existence.

The National Curriculum needs a complete overhaul.

Marrenon - read 'Half of a Yellow Sun' by Chimamanda Ngozu Adichie and 'Things Fall Apart' by Chinua Achebe.

OP posts:
MaryMotherOfCheeses · 05/09/2009 08:51

Maybe all history teaches you that people are different. DS was doing the Celts. I like that cos near us you can see three ancient burial mounds on the top of our local mountain. You need to start somewhere and it gives him a sense of time and imagination that people did things differently.

BonsoirAnna · 05/09/2009 08:52

I do remember being taught about slavery in quite a lot of depth in primary school.

MaryMotherOfCheeses · 05/09/2009 08:55

Really? I guess in some areas though thats local history. How could one live in Bristol for example, without learning about that?
We did loads on the industrial revolution. But then, in a northern mill town that makes sense.

BonsoirAnna · 05/09/2009 08:57

I was in rural Kent - hardly the heartland of slavery. But in a Methodist school that had quite a particular ethical agenda.

Original poster
OneStroke · 05/09/2009 09:00

I agree 'the truth about Britain's history' was a daft term to use!

OP posts:
elliepac · 05/09/2009 09:06

morning all (prepares to duck for cover as reveals herself as a history teacher).

having read this thread, i just had to contribute. the history national curriculum really is changing and there is a much greater emphasis on issues such as cultural diversity. To give you a taste of what goes on these days we teach (broadly):_

Year 7 - the romans and medieval britian
Year 8 - tudors, stuarts and slavery
Year 9 - industrial revolution with a focus on the socio-economic impact, 20th century warfare (including the cold war and vietnam) and rights and feedoms (india and the holocaust)

at gcse we teach the history of medicine and the struggle for the plains in the american west.

It is impossible to cover everything and there are some topics which are just way too complicated for 13 year olds. And no...we don't get to go on lots of trips...because we are not allowed to take kids out of school these days hardly.

Runs for cover

elliepac · 05/09/2009 09:08

Oh dear, please excuse the shocking typing. I am not an illiterate teacher in charge of the nation's future but i am an incredibly hungover history teacher

mermaidspurse · 05/09/2009 09:20

well first we have to remember that history was usually written by the victors and secondly take apart the word his story that speaks volumnes for a fair chunk of what we all learnt at school.
I went on to take history and Development Studies which for the first time really poured light on the hidden history of the rest of the world etc. It was fantastic.

ellie thank god for weekends

BonsoirAnna · 05/09/2009 09:27

Personally, I think that it is much easier to understand history if you first have a reasonable grasp of Darwinian theory and evolution. If you understand that humans are animals and form societies for mutual cooperation and benefit, it is much easier to grasp how and why different societies have interacted with their environment, developed belief systems, made scientific breakthroughs, developed hierarchies etc.

NoahFence · 05/09/2009 09:28

It is part of the curriculum

OP what are you on about

Prunerz · 05/09/2009 09:29

Ooh controversial Anna

You lot should try being taught history in Scotland.
I learned nothing beyond the border apart from that you're all fuckers.

elliepac · 05/09/2009 09:31

at prunerz

NoahFence · 05/09/2009 09:34

schools have a LOt of opinions shoved their way about what IS history and a lot of policitcal infulence too.
Ken Clarke for eg decided that history ended " 20 years ago" rather randomly in the late 80s irrc.

Not only do we have pressure about what to teach, also HOW to teach it, how to assess it and the continual pressure to get kids to CHOOSe it for GCSe thereby keeping ourselves in a job,

IMo the obesession the British have with ww2 does us no favours and when I last tuaght exam classes History ended for most schools in 1945. A great great pity. Nowadays they do the Cold war and APartheied according to whcih examination board the school chooses.

In KS£ there are huge time restraints as the goevernment lurches from focus to focuse and changes the goal posts all the time. Its also ok saying "teach them about Biafra" a lot of kids can barely write let alone debate complex historical issues.

NoahFence · 05/09/2009 09:36

God Ellie pac, dont you HATE SHP ?
at the place I am they do SHP and I loathe it, so out of date with no chronological logic to it at ALL>

elliepac · 05/09/2009 09:37

well said noahfence

elliepac · 05/09/2009 09:42

SHP is a little infuriating to be sure to be
sure. However, it gets really good results and therefore in a results driven environment.......it sucks

NoahFence · 05/09/2009 09:43

its totally illogical and a late 60s relic imo

WhereYouLeftIt · 05/09/2009 12:39

Pardon my higerance, but what is SHP?

at Prunerz, yes, it was all Highland Clearances and Culloden. Though we did do the slave trade as well, what with Glasgow being involved and all.

pinkdelight · 05/09/2009 12:39

I remember my GCSE History being really good. It wasn't so much about the parts of history that were covered as about giving you the tools / ways of thinking to look at any part of history in a critical way. Whatever period we were looking at, the events were just the surface details and the real thing we were being taught was about evidence and point of view - teaching you to question the given 'facts'. I think that's one of the best skills you give a kid and once you've got them, and a thirst for learning of course, you can use them to look at any issue from the dawn of time till the present day.