Saturday 21 July 2007

Warts & All History Lessons

I recently made a flippant remark about The British having a blind spot when it came to the 4th of July in America, a dirty little secret we keep hidden under the rug as not to make ourselves look bad.
I have always maintained that the History lessons we serve to our children are biased towards our triumphs and our failures are glossed over, and to be honest, Britain has been one of the greatest monsters in History.
School Authority, Ofsted, have finally come around to my point of view and said that History lessons lack a world view and children are not taught History in context. The World Wars being a major case in point where the reasons behind the fighting is not discussed, starting only with when Britain entered the War and ignoring the wider context and events that led to the outbreak of both wars.
It is important that our children know about the back story of events in World History even if it shows us in a bad light.
Our role in history includes slavery, invasions, empire building, slaughtering of whole populations, unprovoked wars and a whole list of wrongdoing. To filter our actions through some misguided sense of not making us look anything but the heroes, gives the students a twisted and misleading reality of our History, and that needs to be addressed if we are to stop them growing into historically ignorant adults.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more lucy. I told my son after he returned from school talking about how the english "landed" here that they actually masacred thousands,if not, millions of Native Aboriginals as soon as they arrived(after having cased out a plan of attack off shore). He went to school and repeated what I had said. What a mistake! He was told that is not true and that the Aboriginals attacked "us". Documented evidence suggests otherwise. You only have to look at the stolen generation to confirm that. Not only is the poor kid now confused, I have been told I am a bad parent!

The kind of ignorance and bias of which you speak bugs the hell out of me.
Great post!
XXX

Falling on a bruise said...

It bugs the hell out of me also, there does seem to be a system of rewriting history to show us in a good light. It was only when i began reading about events that surrounded the thing we had been taught at school, i clicked on that we were only being told half the story and challenging the views with the teachers.
All countries have their nasty secrets but we are doing our kids no favours by ignoring them.

Anonymous said...

Agreed, the same happens here. I've even come across people who see the Americans giving Indian tribes blankets teeming with smallpox in a good light.

There's also a lot of self-delusion that goes along with this. When people are told, even at a young age, that their society has never done wrong, it's their choice to believe what obviously can't be correct.

Around My Kitchen Table said...

Is this true? I remember studying the causes of the First World War for A-level history (admittedly a very long time ago!) and learning all about its origins in the scramble to colonise Africa. It didn't put the British in a very good light - nor the French or Germans come to that. I think we Brits have more of a tendency to denigrate everything British - always moaning about the NHS for example - rather than celebrate our achievements. Even though I'm not particularly agreeing with you (although I can see where you're coming from) it's a really good posting. At least it got me thinking! I've just started reading a few of your earlier postings and I think you have a great blog.

The Fez Monkey said...

What you blokes over across the pond need is your own version of Howard Zinn.

Ook ook

Cody Bones said...

I think that your being a little hard on your ancestors Lucy. I don't know a country in existence that hasn't had a disreputable past, especially according to 2007 standards. I think that the important thing is where is the country heading today? Are they trying to reconcile with the past, but not dwell on it? Are they working towards a better tomorrow for it's citizens? I realize that these are very open-ended questions that you as a liberal, and myself as conservative might disagree as to the how, but not to the intent. I happen to believe, with all it's warts (and we all have them) that Britain has been the most important cog in the machinery that is Western Civilization. Here's to England (raises glass) Let's move forward (with lower tax's and smaller government)together.

Falling on a bruise said...

Welcome and thank you kitchen table. I am all for celebrating our acheivements but i really dislike the way we also ignore our less finer hours or colour them in such a way we come out of it looking the good guys, such as the recent end of slavery celebrations.
Cody - I agree that the most important thing is where we are now and what we do in the future,
we cannot change our history.
Britain has made some important contributions to make to the World, but we have also made some contributions that stink and we should at least aknowledge that.

Anonymous said...

I agree. Cody is right about looking forward, but is that adequately done when we can't be honest with ourselves about our past?

O' Tim said...

Second on Fez's comment. The People's History of the United States should be required reading for secondary school students.