Thursday, July 19, 2012

Working with...

... a team of lively, bright young people on a school end-of-term project. They are hampered by lack of general knowledge, especially history. At their request, a special session on this - proved v.v. popular. Time-line of crucial events in British history... Roman Empire, arrivals of Angles and Saxons, mission of St Augustine, Saxon kingdoms, Norman Conquest, Middle Ages, etc etc. They also loved 19th-century stuff, Battle of Waterloo, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, India, etc... Much enthusiasm..."Why aren't we taught all this?" "All we've done is bits and pieces, all muddled up. Themes, not proper dates and events." "Can we do more of this?"

2 comments:

Pearl of Tyburn said...

It's truly sad that schools are teaching such a muddled and incomplete version of history, in Britain and America. Really, I'm afraid a lot of young people spend an excessive amount of time focusing on fantasy and sci-fi as opposed to the history of the world. But that can change I hope!

Keep up the good work, and God Bless you!

Pearl of Tyburn

Malcolm said...

One problem with history is that there's too much of it. Unlike most subjects there are no basics, just periods which are well dicumented and periods which are poorly documented, periods which have received a lot of attention and periods which have received little attention.