Teach Secondary Issue 14.2

Value judgements The historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt once asserted that we must separate children from public, political life as they are not yet adults. Doing so doesn’t have to mean ignoring what’s going on in the world; rather, it requires teachers to make value judgements and select those forms of knowledge that will enable children to become part of the adult world. A curriculum based around contemporary employability or life skills will diminish what young people are capable of learning and understanding, thus narrowing their educational experience. A rich history curriculum– one requiring engagement with the struggles and issues of the past – is among the best ways of addressing modern concerns regarding young people’s political engagement and suggestibility. In a recent lesson on Elizabethan England, we asked our Y8 students to consider how far this era could be considered a ‘Golden Age’ for England. This required them to know about Drake’s circumnavigation; the Renaissance in England; the Religious Settlement; the Poor Laws; and religious plots against Elizabeth I. By learning about these topics (acquiring substantive knowledge), students could then discuss their own interpretations of Elizabethan England and how these may have changed over time (disciplinary knowledge). There then followed some good debates over who benefited fromher reign and why some groups rebelled against her, as well as a better understanding of the changing relationships betweenmonarch, parliament and the Church. This was no ‘Gradgrindian’ approach to absorbing facts. Indeed, history should be for all students – and for at least until they are on the brink of adulthood. Historical consciousness Charles Clarke’s comments around the value of historical knowledge and other spheres of academic knowledge seem to be part of a worrying trend. Inmy view, the government would do well to extend compulsory history teaching in schools up to 16, and ensure that all students have been taught about the history of the place they inhabit – in our case, Britain. Without that, how can young people have a sense of what it means to be British? This doesn’t have to preclude learning about the wider world or Britain’s international impact – nor indeed the role that migration has played in the creation of British society. But Britain is a place with a particular history, and a specific set of institutions and traditions. This knowledge has to be the foundation upon which our students build their engagement with the contemporary world. Writing in Tes back in 2006, history teacher Christine Counsell once observed that, “ The historical consciousness of these children matters, because they are human beings. History teaches us the meaning of human-ness. These pupils too can experience the awe and humility that a disciplined, stretching study of the past confers. ” I hope the government agrees. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Louise Burton is a history teacher in Buckinghamshire and a member of the Academy of Ideas Education Forum. IN BRIEF WHAT’S THE ISSUE? The teaching of history has changed considerably over the past decade, though it’s still the case that all students would benefit from receiving more than three hours of history instruction per fortnight, as many do at present. WHAT’S BEING SAID? Ahead of what’s billed as a far-reaching review of the National Curriculum by the Labour government, a number of voices are now pressing for course content – in history and elsewhere – to have a greater emphasis on contemporary relevance, in contrast to the current teaching of a more UK-centric history presented in some quarters as ‘jingoistic’. WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING? While there is some common agreement around the need for better teaching of critical thinking skills, a renewed focus on contemporary concerns and perspectives risks undoing the progress made in making the history curriculum more knowledge-rich. THE TAKEAWAY Students need to be taught history for longer. The subject is too important to be dropped at the age of 13-14, if we want young adults to possess a certain level of knowledge and understanding of the society in which they live. 13 teachwire.net/secondary H O T TO P I C