The Independent last month commented on the government’s decision to appoint an historical advisor. At an event entitled “Why Policy Needs History” at the Cabinet War Rooms in London, Professor David Cannadine and two other leading historians told an audience of politicians and civil servants that policy making would benefit from the involvement of expert historians at the top levels.
This would surely provide politicians and the public with a contextual, long-distance lens through which to view current events. What better way to reduce the prevalence of short-term “spin” politics, and better still, to dispel forever the idea of history as a dead subject?
Last August, Ms Tattersall Chartered of the Institute of Educational Assessors told the Independent: “History is disappearing because it is no longer a requirement of the national curriculum for 14 to 16-year-olds. It is just one of the subjects that is at risk.
“History is also disappearing into the new citizenship, which is being promoted by the government.”
She also said that subjects like photography and media studies had become growth areas in the past few years because they were the kind of subjects needed for a job.
A recent study has attempted to discover why so few people are interested in History. Until degree level, the subject is treated as random pockets of information. For example, everyone is taught about the tudors but not why they were around, how they ceased to be, or how they have affected modern society. A colleague of mine, when I asked her about it, said “I like Henry VII”.
The problem with this method of teaching is that it means no-one really understands what History is. People see History as fiction as not as fact to learn from. Some people know this about themselves, but more often it is subconcious and therefore people do not want to learn.
What people rarely realise is that History is not merely a stream of dates and facts. The point of History, at an academic level, is to come to a greater understanding of how the world works. This is difficult for someone who has never taken an interest to come to terms with.
When I was an undergrad I was introduced to a new world, a rich historical scope of information, not only of the accepted views of History but different interpretations that were never made clear to me before. It is a gradual awakening.
Perhaps some people think that there is no value in knowing how the idea of the devil has evolved and grown into part of our society, or how the Second World War and Cold War have impacted so vastly on the world that it cannot be described succinctly.
It is a subject which give people a wealth of knowledge that is more important than just getting a job. It helps people to understand the world.
