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Britain
Rolling back PC in the classroom: UK history lessons
2013-01-20
Children will be taught a sweeping chronology of world events ranging from the dinosaurs through to the fall of the Berlin Wall under plans to scrap politically-correct topics in history lessons, it has emerged.

A new curriculum in the subject is to be introduced by a team of academics and teachers in a move intended to give children aged five to 14 a clear narrative of the past, it was revealed.

The document -- published by the History Curriculum Association -- starts in the first year of primary school with the story of the dinosaurs, including how they lived, their extinction and fossils.
The challengers.
It moves on to Stone Age man, the Ancient Egyptians and the Romans before covering 2,000 years of British and world history through to the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union.

Other topics include the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans, the Crusades, the Tudors, the Civil Wars, the expansion of the British Empire and the World Wars.

The association is to send copies of its syllabus out to state academies and private schools, which are not forced to follow the National Curriculum, later this month.

Chris McGovern, the association's founder, said that the move represented a radical departure from the existing National Curriculum which sought to teach children through broad "themes" covering issues such as the role of women and social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity.

He said the current curriculum -- published by Labour -- confused pupils by "jumping around in time" and underestimated the "capacity of young children to follow a narrative".

It was essential for any history curriculum to start with dinosaurs, he said, even though the topic is normally only covered in school science lessons.

"We should be starting off with what fascinates children -- dinosaurs and the world before there were people and a world that died out," he said.

"This introduces children to issues of sustainability at a young age besides capturing and using their very real enthusiasms. Ask five-year-olds if they would prefer to be taught concepts of chronology or dinosaurs."

The Department for Education is already rewriting the history curriculum as part of a major shake-up of subject specifications. It will publish its own primary and secondary school document later this term.
The powers that be.
A DfE spokesman said: "We will publish drafts of the national curriculum programmes of study shortly."
Don't let the gentility mislead you - in disputes like this the academic authorities play a nasty game. Let's hope the dinosaurs win out.
Posted by:lotp

#9  Not quite, Rambler. As I understand it, the historians want to actually center on facts and context within which facts occurred rather than feelings.
Posted by: lotp   2013-01-20 16:32  

#8  Sounds to me like they're just replacing one form of PC with another.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia   2013-01-20 11:51  

#7  Most of the population a hundred years ago lived in the rural environment with towns and villages who's pace of life and experience identified more with those who'd lived hundreds of years before them rather than today's metro/urban centric population. Until the advent of the railroads, most people were born, lived, and died within about a 20 mile radius. That was their world, their society, what they knew, and what they interacted with.
Posted by Procopius2k

...and we appear to be returning to it under the current administration.
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-01-20 10:51  

#6  Sustainability is code fore malthusian drivel.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2013-01-20 10:48  

#5  ...was really boring and tedious..

Much of history was/is really boring and tedious. What is taught usually are the glimpses and sparks that alter the daily humdrum of existence. What has altered in Western society in the last hundred years has pretty much exceed change in the preceding two millenniums. Most of the population a hundred years ago lived in the rural environment with towns and villages who's pace of life and experience identified more with those who'd lived hundreds of years before them rather than today's metro/urban centric population. Until the advent of the railroads, most people were born, lived, and died within about a 20 mile radius. That was their world, their society, what they knew, and what they interacted with.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2013-01-20 10:43  

#4  Children will be taught a sweeping chronology of world events ranging from the gay dinosaurs through to the fallof the Berlin Wall unfortunate demise of an icon famed for its stemming the tide of capitalist running dogs.
Posted by: Pappy   2013-01-20 10:30  

#3  Undoing labours shoddy pc workmanship. As a student the role of women was really boring and tedious, went through it for 5 months.
Posted by: Devilstoenail   2013-01-20 07:45  

#2  The only book needed:
1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates
Posted by: Shipman   2013-01-20 05:24  

#1  I believe it when I'll see it.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2013-01-20 02:27  

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