Teach-Secondary-Issue-14.5

Last month, research commissioned by LBC and conducted byMore in Common revealed that only a third of 18- to 25-year-olds knowwhat VEDay is. This prompted the kind of consternation you’d expect frommodernmedia discourse, with questions asked over whether the young are forgetting about the First and SecondWorldWars, and if so, what that means for the ‘collective memory’ of our nation. I, however, had slightly different thoughts. During my lifetime, I’ve seen commemorations of VEDay broadly fall into two categories. The first is a kind of twee, ‘bunting and cake’ occasion, where attendees will revel in a synthetic, yet comforting version of Britishness, of the type we sell to tourists. The second is largely indistinguishable from football hooliganism, and usually involves participants becoming intoxicated, waving flags and crowing about how ‘we’ won. Nowhere, however, have I seen public events centred onmore thoughtful discussions around what the Allies were actually fighting for – freedom and democracy, lest we forget – and why they had to. And that, in turn, perhaps explains the popularity of contemporary populist political figures who are borrowing their rhetoric straight from the playbook of Hitler and Enoch Powell. History repeating In 2025, the far right is surging while marginalised communities are being targeted and scapegoated. We’re reportedly on the brink of global conflict once more. Whilst widely believed to be exaggerated for reasons of generating outrage, there’s still a statistically significant proportion of British young people who are enthusiastic fans of openly racist, misogynistic and homophobic online influencers. All this begs the question of whether history simply isn’t being taught well enough to enable the general population to notice it repeating itself. My brilliant history teacher, Mr Biggins, went into a great deal of depth about the period between the twoWorld Wars. I left school knowing that Germany had been in a period of economic decline during the 1930s, and that when working people feel resentful, they can be easily manipulated into turning their anger on ‘immigrants’ whilst those in power seize on opportunities to engage in serial corruption and self-enrichment. It was only recently, whilst pondering why everyone else didn’t remember being taught that at school, that I actually realised we did the topic at A Level. Though even if it had been at GCSE, pupils had the option of choosing to ditch history fromY9 onwards. Thin end of thewedge Samuel, a history teacher at a secondary school in East London, recently told me how, “In some schools, they teach history chronologically. In Y7 it’s the Norman conquest and theMiddle Ages. Y8 may then cover the Tudors and Stuart Britain. By Y9, they may get to the Industrial Revolution and slavery. ” I asked at what point they would get toWorldWar II. “ The Holocaust is the only thing that’s mandatory to teach on the National Curriculum,” he said. “So [many pupils] haven’t really had much exposure to marginalised communities, populism, polarisation and the post- truth of the 1930s. ” Holocaust education is, of course, incredibly important. But it’s just as important for young people to understand the conditions which led to it, and how to guard against the thin end of the propaganda wedge. Ashrewdmove Samuel went on to tell me how, in his school, they’ve adopted a different ‘thematic’ approach: “ By the time [our pupils] get to Y9, they cover the 20th century and call it a ‘century of extremes’. Students are equipped to understand how a polarised society can sow the seeds of division and hatred. Everything we teach also emphasises the importance of factual evidence and scrutiny. ” There are, of course, ongoing concerns around the underfunding and de-prioritising of humanities within schools, with Conservative Education Secretaries since 2010 having focussed obsessively on so-called ‘core academic’ subjects and STEM. It would be a shrewd move if Bridget Phillipson were to take steps to reverse this, as it’s never beenmore important that we teach history, and carefully consider howwe go about doing so. If a significant proportion of young people are struggling to understand what VE Day is and what it means, that suggests a rethink may be in order when it comes to the teaching of modern history... Natasha Devon Natasha Devon is a writer, broadcaster and campaigner on issues relating to education and mental health; to find out more, visit natashadevon.com or follow @_NatashaDevon 19 teachwire.net/secondary S C H O O L O F T H O U G H T