Pop Quiz
Without thinking name three wars.
Done
Lose a point if any of your answers contained the word Star!!
I will take a guess that most of you will have thought of at least one of the World Wars, English / American civil wars, Roses and 100 years. Maybe one of the Gulf Wars made the cut.
How many of you said Korean, Falklands or Bosnian?
This year sees 30 years since tbe start of the Bosnian War, 40 years since the start of the Falklands War and next year will be 70 years since the end of the Korean War (yes, I am aware a full peace treaty has never been signed).
Anyway, here is my point. I was born 38 years after the end of the second world war and 1 year after the end of the Falklands War. The Bosnian War took place whilst I was at school and I had never heard of the Korean War until I was in my teens. Indeed the Korean War is often referred to as the forgotten war, sandwiched as it is between World War 2 and Vietnam.
Yet, I know more about the wars I mentioned in my first list than I do about these “modern ones.” I read an article last week which stated, according to research conducted by Help For Heroes, the Falklands is in danger of becoming a “forgotten war.” You can read more about it here
Are we concentrating too much on easy history, by that I mean what we have already been taught, and becoming ignorant of our modern past?
Those of you who have young children in your lives will probably be aware that the way they are taught is dramatically different to how you were. Even the tools available in the classroom are a world away from what I had in the late 1980's and through the 1990's. Allow me to have a minute to reflect on nails down a blackboard, banging the board rubber to create more white dust than a coke den, the ever present danger / amusement of a teacher writing directly on to the glass of an overhead projector (OHP), the always amusing practical joke of drawing a cock and balls on the back of a scrolling blackboard then giggling like, well like, school kids when the teacher rolled it over, the TV being wheeled out to show an over used and warn VHS and the mono speaker on its last, distorted legs. You get the picture. If any of you know of the modern equivalents drop them in the comments.
Where was I? Oh yes History
Whilst it seems the techniques of teaching has changed dramatically, the subjects, or topics, being taught in history have remained largely the same. Pre roman, roman, throw in some vikings, Tudors and Stuarts, Victorians and WWII. That pretty much sums up primary history in the UK and has been for decades. After year 9 (aged 14) history becomes an optional subject for GCSE. Indeed a Cambridge Universiy report from 2018 (Carroll, M & Gill, T. 2017. Uptake of GCSE subjects 2016. Statistics Report Series No. 114. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Assess) states that only two fifths (41%) of pupils take history to GCSE. Only 0.1% of pupils study ancient history.
Are the subjects being taught over and over again becoming boring? Are those teaching them year after year becoming bored and therefore uninspiring?
Who remembers the home work when learning about WWII having to go home and call an elderly relative or speak to an elderly person about their experiences in the war? Well, my grandparents were kids during the war so didn't have much recollection, but they did have their ration books. I did have one Great Uncle who served in Burma, was held as a POW and came back with a Samurai Sword, which he took from a Japanese soldier he killed. That's all I know and I only know that from my Dad as said Uncle rarely spoke about it. Well as time has moved on (another 39 years since I was born) the chances to have those conversations are getting rarer. Do we now need to think about living memory and if wars are to be studied, think about which ones to ask veterans about? Indeed, will they even be happy to talk about it? We have a much greater understanding now of PTSD (formally shell shock) in war veterans than ever before and thankfully a more accepting society albeit a long way still to go.
To put it another way, to prevent these modern wars (and Irish Troubles) from becoming forgotten, do we owe it to the veterans to learn and talk about them? The Falkland veterans such as those below are now going to be in their 50's and 60's some maybe in their 70's, yet the 1980's still don't seem that long ago.
I am old enough to remember first world war veterans attending remembrance parades. To me they seemed impossibly old, but now my son will see WWII veterans in the same way and we aren't too far away from losing the living memory of those veterans.
As far as I am concerned we owe it to war veterans to learn about the conflicts they fought in so they are not forgotten. It may mean curriculums need to change slightly or to allow pupils chance to explore our history more. Should they be learning about the Anarchy, the early wars of the roses not just Bosworth, the crusades, Georgian Britain, macaronis and the Empire? Yes that will involve having to take a collective long hard look at ourselves but in turn that can encourage healthy and mature conversations about slavery and its impact then and in today's society. Should we encourage the learning of African History, Islamic / Arabic history? Given the prominence of China, should more be taught about the Chinese dynasties and the Maoist revolution? All rhetorical questions of course, but as the world moves at an ever increasing pace, should we be questioning what periods of history are taught if it is to remain interesting, engaging and relevant?
What would you want to see being taught? Let me know in the comments.
Until next time.
I really wish the history curriculum was more varied. Though teaching has come a long way in terms of engaging students through different styles of teaching, the topics covered are quite repetitive. We also have the added issue of being forced to pick between Geography and History to study for GCSE. My son wanted to do both, but this isn’t allowed. So he’s picked Geography. With a promise from the head of the History dept that he can study History at A level if he continues his level of commitment.
I would reintroduce Civics classes. In the US at least Civics classes gave students at least a rudimentary understanding of Society, Rule of Law...just how to be a Citizen. I don't know why they stopped teaching it but you can see the results over the last 30 years or so...your lifetime it seems. Another problem here has been that typically the History teacher is the football coach...Grid Iron, American football...guess which topic gets short shrift? Oh I also went to Catholic School grades 1-12 so I got more of a History of Catholicism instead of History as such. BTW, my favorite war...The Opium War because it tells you all you need about Colonialism. Cheers