Times of London Editorial: The teaching of history, as it unfolds, should be a higher priority in schools
Edward Gibbon once said: “I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past.” It is a lesson that the British nation needs to learn again.
In a recent report on the teaching of history in schools, Ofsted pointed out that, too often, British children had no clear sense of chronology and no vantage point on historical change. For too long, the idea of a story unfolding in real time has given way to a series of fragments, themes ripped out of time. As a result, many pupils are unable to answer history's big questions and do not know enough of the story that brought their nation, and the world of which it is a part, to where it stands today.
That is why it was good to hear Michael Gove, the opposition education spokesman, say that a future Conservative government would insist on the teaching of narrative history. This means teaching history in a chronological order, with a clear exposition of what happened when. This does not mean that history needs to be taught as though it moves inexorably towards the light. It is even more of a simplification, if not a travesty, to tell the story of British liberty as a single, sinuous golden thread, as Macaulay tries to.
But history taught with some regard for time will allow neglected periods to be taught again in full. It is impossible, for example, to understand the story of modern Britain without knowing something of the period between the Glorious Revolution of 1688, in which Parliament deposed James VII of Scotland and II of England, and the Second Jacobite Uprising of 1745, which brought an end to the campaign to restore James and later his descendants of the House of Stuart to the throne.
This is the period in which Great Britain comes into being, in 1707. The overthrow of James begins the era of parliamentary democracy and ends absolute monarchical power. The Bill of Rights has become one of the most important documents in the nation's political history. The deposition of James ended any chance of Catholicism becoming re-established in England. Catholics were denied the right to vote and sit in the Westminster Parliament for more than 100 years afterwards. They were also denied commissions in the British Army and the monarch was forbidden to be Catholic or marry a Catholic, thus ensuring the Protestant succession.
Mr Gove points out that this period is virtually absent from the school curriculum. GCSE examinations do not bother with anything before 1815. Oftsed made the same point - pupils cover too few topics in too much detail....
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In a recent report on the teaching of history in schools, Ofsted pointed out that, too often, British children had no clear sense of chronology and no vantage point on historical change. For too long, the idea of a story unfolding in real time has given way to a series of fragments, themes ripped out of time. As a result, many pupils are unable to answer history's big questions and do not know enough of the story that brought their nation, and the world of which it is a part, to where it stands today.
That is why it was good to hear Michael Gove, the opposition education spokesman, say that a future Conservative government would insist on the teaching of narrative history. This means teaching history in a chronological order, with a clear exposition of what happened when. This does not mean that history needs to be taught as though it moves inexorably towards the light. It is even more of a simplification, if not a travesty, to tell the story of British liberty as a single, sinuous golden thread, as Macaulay tries to.
But history taught with some regard for time will allow neglected periods to be taught again in full. It is impossible, for example, to understand the story of modern Britain without knowing something of the period between the Glorious Revolution of 1688, in which Parliament deposed James VII of Scotland and II of England, and the Second Jacobite Uprising of 1745, which brought an end to the campaign to restore James and later his descendants of the House of Stuart to the throne.
This is the period in which Great Britain comes into being, in 1707. The overthrow of James begins the era of parliamentary democracy and ends absolute monarchical power. The Bill of Rights has become one of the most important documents in the nation's political history. The deposition of James ended any chance of Catholicism becoming re-established in England. Catholics were denied the right to vote and sit in the Westminster Parliament for more than 100 years afterwards. They were also denied commissions in the British Army and the monarch was forbidden to be Catholic or marry a Catholic, thus ensuring the Protestant succession.
Mr Gove points out that this period is virtually absent from the school curriculum. GCSE examinations do not bother with anything before 1815. Oftsed made the same point - pupils cover too few topics in too much detail....