Teaching History

[Sheilbh]

But yeah. The British system sucks. Given the controversy around the empire however and the likely version your average history teacher will teach its not all together a bad idea its avoided altogether.

I think this depends a lot. I had one history teacher who was very into the Tudors (to the extent that her "end of term" trick was letting us watch Elizabeth while she paused and outlined the errors

But my other two teachers were Welsh and Glaswegian who both really went in on the social history module.

Have to say though, through my encounters with people who've been through the Irish school system I'd hate to see the UK follow that path. When you're teaching to the population as a whole you can't expect the bulk to have nuanced thoughts about history so many of them just boil things down to a simple goodies and baddies, Irish and British, believing utter nonsense like the potato famine genocide. Ireland could do with reform in itself to tone down the nationalism, but something which Britain really doesn't need more of....

I might park this for a separate thread as I think it's fairly easy to split Irish history into goodies and baddies and I'm not sure what the nonsense is about the great famine. But lots of Irish people I've spoken with find the embarrassment at "nationalism" really odd, because it's the basis of their being an Irish state and it's strange (from their view) that there's no equivalent nationalism in bits of the UK, or an embarassment around nationalism. Because without that what are we all doing?

Edit: Also the big hole in the English syllabuses I've posted - given the population of the UK and the size of the country and the interestingness of the history is India which really should be fixed.

[HVC]

Yeah Canada is ridiculously ignored. The only time it is mentioned is as a destination for runaway slaves.

you have to hit at all my countries, don't you

[Sheilbh]

I'm surprised the numbers doing a level history in England are so high. Is the system different now and you don't just get 4 options?

I think so. I think for the most part you know do it as a straight A-level in England because they've got rid of AS levels (which helped fuck up the exams this year in England v Wales which kept AS). So yeah it would be one of 3-4 choices.

And I think it's fairly common for kids going down the humanities/social sciences/law etc route. History + English

[The Larch]

Like why is it even called Lusitania? Nobody knows or at least doesn't consider it important enough to mention

Because of the Lusitani tribe that inhabited the area during the Roman conquest, duh. 

[Valmy]

Just out of curiosity if you grow up in Gloucestershire do you get any Gloucestershire history or is it pretty generic across England? Here you usually get your year when you cover the history of your state. I am sure the history of Idaho is fascinating stuff. My mother grew up in Oklahoma and most of it was all the treaties that were broken with the local tribes who were forcibly moved there.

[Valmy]

Like why is it even called Lusitania? Nobody knows or at least doesn't consider it important enough to mention

Because of the Lusitani tribe that inhabited the area during the Roman conquest, duh. 

I am sure they left a rich and fascinating legacy.

[The Brain]

FWIW growing up in Stockholm you got some local Stockholm history. Stockholm lies om the border between two of the traditional provinces (Uppland and Södermanland) so local history was Stockholm history.

[The Larch]

Like why is it even called Lusitania? Nobody knows or at least doesn't consider it important enough to mention

Because of the Lusitani tribe that inhabited the area during the Roman conquest, duh. 

I am sure they left a rich and fascinating legacy.

They're the forefathers of guerrilla warfare, for instance.

[The Brain]

They later became seafarers and were lost to history.

[Grey Fox]

I think it's fairly common for a small country to teach the history of its large neighbour, but for the large country to just focus on itself.

In Canadian schools you'll get a decent bit of US history, whereas I'm positive the reverse is not true.  I'm not surprised when Brain says the same dynamic exists with Finland-Sweden.

As I mentioned in the OTT, even my daughter will learn more this year about US history than RoC history.

[Duque de Bragança]

Portugal is kind of funny from a world history type of perspective. It is never mentioned at all, even as a part of the Roman Empire or Cordoba or anything, and then suddenly shows up around 1450 then vanishes again into the mists around 1580 and never gets mentioned again...but Brazil speaks Portuguese for some reason. At some point it became a republic.

Like why is it even called Lusitania? Nobody knows or at least doesn't consider it important enough to mention

The emirate/caliphate part or rather link is anecdotally true at least.

[Valmy]

They're the forefathers of guerrilla warfare, for instance.

Really? Just that one tribe out of all of Hispania? I thought the whole place was a slog for the Romans.

[Duque de Bragança]

Like why is it even called Lusitania? Nobody knows or at least doesn't consider it important enough to mention

Because of the Lusitani tribe that inhabited the area during the Roman conquest, duh. 

I am sure they left a rich and fascinating legacy.

The famous Viriathus mentioned in the glorious History Channel programme called Barbarians Rising! (sic)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarians_Rising

Plus some goddesses Trebaruna and Ataegina invoked by Moonspell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfheart

Very popular album in the '90s, for instance Germany, one of their best.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfheart

[Valmy]

I wasn't being sarcastic just saying that any details about Portugal besides the fact they are Not-Spain and were important for about 100 years are typically not mentioned in world history courses.

[Duque de Bragança]

I was a bit sarcastic about the above mentioned History Channel Program. While the segments about Viriathus and arguably Arminius are not bad, some others are really not that great (Hannibal...).