HISTORY IS FOR THE PEOPLE
History I discovered in my
teens is everything: ‘He who controls the past controls the future,’ George
Orwell wrote in 1984, something ruling elites have always known. Control of the
narrative being the first requisite for power; “We rule” the elite declare, “because
we are destined to rule.” Should any citizen question this they need only be
directed to the history books.
The government is
currently undertaking a concerted drive to take control over the way the
historical narrative is currently being taught in our schools.[1]
History is already the worst taught subject in the public education system. On
a recent edition of the popular BBC quiz show ‘Pointless’ a contestant, who
claimed to be a PhD student, was unable to answer any multiple choice questions
about The English Civil War. She finally ventured that the struggle was between
the Royalists and the Redcoats! Ignorance on this scale is not only alarming but speaks of a populace who literally do not know who they are or where they live and is only possible when students see history as something remote, irrelevant to their lives.
Michael Gove |
Aside from being an extraordinarily arrogant, opinionated and conceited man the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, is an astute Tory; he knows the importance of history and the importance of how it is taught. Indeed Tories and nationalists have always grasped the importance of the historical narrative. They know how dangerous is a history that emphasises the struggles of the working class, that places British history in wider world-wide contexts, exposes the problems created by British imperialism and Empire.
No, what they require to produce good citizens is an historical chronology that emphasises a hierarchy of important ‘facts,’ that illustrate ‘our great island story.’ Kings and
This struggle over the narrative is itself of course profoundly historical, it is a struggle over the very heart of whom and what we are; E P Thompson, Christopher Hill, Asa Briggs, all knew this and knew that it was essential for the left to join battle.
The past is like the present, a complex struggle of competing interests and this must be explained to our children if they are to be fully aware of the nature of the world in which they are to participate. I am not here making a case for all schoolchildren to be exposed solely to a Marxist interpretation of the past;[2] but a history that conceals, sanitises or misrepresents the nature of these struggles is only a little above the level of propaganda and it is even more likely to produce students who believe that the competing factions in the civil war are a matter of indifference, only useful to know in a TV quiz show.
[2] Though I do think Marxism
an important strand of thought to which young minds ought to be exposed.
Having visited this page I would be grateful for your feedback, either tick one of the boxes below or make a comment via the comments button.