1066 and all that ....

Eric · 10-02-2009, 20:07

I was reading Jambutty's post on the United States of GB thread, the one with the little history lesson, and it occured to me to ask how history (or, History) is being taught in English schools .... is it the real stuff with, as Cromwell so aptly put it, "warts and all" ... or is it some sanitized, politically correct, apologetic horse manure that offends no one and instructs no one?

Retlaw · 10-02-2009, 21:16

Eric.
Dusti maeun sumat like this.

Retlaw.

steeljack · 10-02-2009, 21:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric

I was reading Jambutty's post on the United States of GB thread, the one with the little history lesson, and it occured to me to ask how history (or, History) is being taught in English schools .... is it the real stuff with, as Cromwell so aptly put it, "warts and all" ... or is it some sanitized, politically correct, apologetic horse manure that offends no one and instructs no one?

Wouldn't surprise me if the Scots kids know more about Robert the Bruce, and Welsh kids about Lewelyn than English kids know about Bodicea or Hereward the Wake.

Would also be interesting to know how many English kids on a school trips have visited one of the great Cathedrals v the numbers who have visited a Mosque

emamum · 10-02-2009, 22:07

isnt that the phone number for insurance

Retlaw · 10-02-2009, 22:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by emamum

isnt that the phone number for insurance

Daft Bat.

Retlaw

In hiding again.

garinda · 11-02-2009, 00:40

British imperialism certainly hadn't been whitewashed from our great history, the last time I was taught it in the early eighties.

I don't really know how it's being taught today. I do know a young relative of mine was studying World War II last year, which involved lots of indepth study and research about our war dead.

I did have to study art history for five years. Three of which years it was taught to me by a particularly hard line feminist, whose main idea regarding the history of art was that all men were evil bar stewards. We had quite a lively debate lasting a few years, the two of us. In the end I came out of the battle with my victor's colours flying.

What I didn't like about the way we were taught history is that there are just so many gaps. One minute your learning about Stone Age man, then it jumps to the English Civil War, the term after that it's the pre-WW I Balkans.

I wanted chronology. Start at the begining and work nicely through to whenever history end, which in the early eighties was 1945.

I'm still pretty much in the dark when it comes to the Dark Ages.

cashman · 11-02-2009, 00:53

nowt at all was taught about more modern history in my day, just the whitewashed guff that in my opinion, most will never relate to again after leaving.

MargaretR · 11-02-2009, 01:10

I have a passion for history.
At the Accy High school in the late 60s, history was taught in its historical sequence, starting in the stone age(briefly) and ending 5 years later(in education time

) just before Queen Victoria.
It was always British history but because of wars and the explorations and conquests which formed the empire, brief snippets of the history of other countries was added in to clarify the then situation.

It is an enormous subject and there is more of it to learn by now

Historians tend to specialise in a particular section in time that interests them most, and teachers do the same.

The part that I had little taught at school is the part that I have taken trouble to discover myself - ancient history, and even pre-history

cashman · 11-02-2009, 01:34

i also love history, ancient egypt n such, also more modern stuff from boer war forwards, but not fer the life in me was ever interested in some geezer getting n arrow in his eye, n that sort of guff. i cannot fer the life in me see what good that did me in later life, never learnt about egypt at school thats fascinated me in later life, we did sod all from boer war forward, now i can see kids being more interested in that, as ya can relate more through relatives.

steeljack · 11-02-2009, 05:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by cashman

we did sod all from boer war forward, now i can see kids being more interested in that, as ya can relate more through relatives.

What your forgetting Cashy , when we went to skoo in the 60s the boer war and WWI were only 50/60 yrs in the past , so using that logic schools today should be treating the 60s as an historical era, don't think I want to be thought of as part of history , not just yet

Benipete · 11-02-2009, 08:12

1066 and all that.
The History Book To End All History Books by W.C Sellar and R.J Yeatman.
A must read.

US Angel · 11-02-2009, 08:17

At least we teach our kids history geograhy etc here.
My kids have gone to schools in the US and geography
is not a subject taught

Benipete · 11-02-2009, 08:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by US Angel

At least we teach our kids history geograhy etc here.
My kids have gone to schools in the US and geography
is not a subject taught

You can say that again,When I rang Western Union the American guy although very polite did not know where Spain was.

emamum · 11-02-2009, 10:21

Tyler enjoys history, they are doing the great fire of london atm and he loves it. I did history until i was 14 then dropped it but i can still remember when we were doing about the holocaust the text book had a picture of a big pile of murdered Jews and there were children there, i will never forget that picture.

jaysay · 11-02-2009, 11:00

Going Back to my school days, when you reached the 4 year, you had to choose History or Geography, I didn't like Des Mulderek so I chose Geog

, but I'm bit like cashy, I like Egyptology these days, and watch quite a lot of programs on it, on the Discovery Channel