16th November 2005, 01:17 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by I F Lostmetrowel
....people wonder why kids dont know some of the key dates of history
Aye there's the rub!!
To reduce history to the basis of rote memory of a series of key dates underlines how easy it is to make a wide-ranging subject parochial and predujiced. For who decides which dates are important to learn?
If I were to have family origins in the Indian sub-continent I might believe that a whole series of dates from 3000BC to 1947AD are of some importance to my understanding of a shared cultural past. I probably wouldn't be too concerned however with 1066 or 45AD.
If I were to have family origins in the Caribbean I might find 1832AD a much more interesting date than 1805AD.
Surely part of the role of history (and archaeology) as subjects should be to provide the tools for everyone to study their own pasts and shared pasts; to make people aware that there are several sides to most historical 'tales' and to ensure that no-one should be excluded from the study or promotion of the historical and cultural past.
Learning 'dates' is what the middle classes would have us do to get another useless certificate in academic non-attainment. (Suggest anyone unaware of the historical perspective for fact-learning, read, or re-read, the 'Gradgrind' chapters of Dickens' Hard Times).