Norwood (1943)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part I Secondary education
Chapter 1 Nature of secondary education
Chapter 2 Secondary education as it is
Chapter 3 Secondary education as it might be

Part II Examinations
Chapter 4 Existing examinations
Chapter 5 The reorganisation of examinations (i)
Chapter 6 The reorganisation of examinations (ii)
Chapter 7 The Inspectorate

Part III Curriculum
Chapter 8 The curriculum in general
Chapter 9 Physical education
Chapter 10 Religious education
Chapter 11 English
Chapter 12 History
Chapter 13 Geography
Chapter 14 Mathematics
Chapter 15 Natural science
Chapter 16 Modern languages
Chapter 17 Classics
Chapter 18 Art, music, handicrafts
Chapter 19 Domestic subjects
Chapter 20 Education for commerce
Chapter 21 Wales and the teaching of Welsh

Conclusions and recommendations
Appendix A Note on the Central Welsh Board
Appendix B List of witnesses
Index

Report of the Committee of the Secondary School Examinations Council appointed by the President of the Board of Education in 1941

London: HM Stationery Office 1943

Chapter 12 History
[pages 98 - 101. In the printed version this is Part III Chapter V]

Perhaps no subject of the curriculum with the exception of English admits of more varied interpretation than the subject known as history. By some teachers the purposes of the teaching are regarded as so comprehensive and of such paramount significance in education that the place of history and its accompanying studies, geography and social studies, would absorb the major portion of the curriculum. By other teachers it is felt that history demands an adult mind and adult interests; that at school, at any rate below the sixth form, little more can be effected than the erecting of a chronological scaffolding of the main events in the history of man; the building itself can be undertaken only by further reading interpreted in the light of sufficient experience of human motive at its best and worst. Some would urge that to many children the romance and strangeness of the remoter past make most appeal, interest being lost as present times are approached in all their complexity and even remoteness of issues; others would disagree and testify that as the modern age comes under study pupils gain a sense of reality and relevance. Yet others would say that some pupils have no interest in process and development and how things came to be as they are; description of things as they are now makes the only appeal. Looking to wider issues, some would point to the needs of a modern democracy and would urge that democracy can work only if its members have enough political and social sense to make it work; they would enlist the aid of history teaching in schools as a main instrument in the education of democracy, and would extend the range of school history and geography to cover 'civics' and 'world politics' and economics. Others again would emphasise the extreme difficulties and the incessant temptations which confront a teacher attempting to explore complex and technical and controversial problems with immature children.

The schools then are faced with many problems; what is the function of history teaching? Is it the same for all pupils? If regard is had to the age and development of the children in the schools, how can the schools make contribution to the education of members of a democracy through such subjects as history and geography? This is a problem perpetually pressed upon the schools by those who expect them to make a larger contribution than they can.

The content and the treatment of school history depend then upon the purposes with which it is taught. Of recent years the conception of history as merely a record of the past has tended to be enlarged by a wider understanding of its purposes in the curriculum; it has increasingly been recognised that, whatever its other purposes, the record should be related at suitable points to the present. The war has accelerated that process of recognition and the obligations of teachers of history have become increasingly apparent. The interdependence of peoples, and the far-reaching effects of political, social or economic ideas beyond their place of origin, the shrinkage of the world and the new orientations which are compelled thereby - these have widened horizons and brought about the beginnings of a new perspective. For example, modern Europe, the British peoples overseas, the United States of America have become vitally significant and, while the scope of history has become enlarged, a new intimacy has been created. Nonetheless, in spite of the widening of the bounds of interest, the conviction remains that the child at school is first a citizen of the United Kingdom and that his extension of interest and grasp takes place most naturally outwards from the history of his own country and his own people at home and overseas to the larger field of foreign history.

Thus, the conception of history teaching in schools is widening; it emphasises the significance of history for the understanding of recent and contemporary conditions and events; it extends its sphere of interest, yet it uses what is familiar as its point of departure for broader studies. With this tendency we believe most people feel all sympathy. In particular we would assert as our own view:

(a) that the history of Britain must remain the core of the history syllabus, and to that core the history of other peoples must be organically related. Little good can come from imposing new subjects on the curriculum or adding new and separate blocks of history to the syllabus. But much good can come from the rewriting of old chapters, with perhaps greater attention paid to biography, with many omissions and such insertion of new matter as the wider outlook entails;

(b) that the history of Britain at home and overseas in the latter part of the nineteenth and the twentieth century should receive adequate treatment. This difficult period clearly should not be dealt with at too early an age, and in our view probably not before fifteen. Since then some pupils leave at 16+, it becomes imperative that, whatever else they may undertake in history in the last year of the main school, they should devote some time to this vital period.

It is in the sixth form that real historical study begins. The history sixth will naturally undertake the work appropriate to it both as regards periods and treatment. But in all divisions of the sixth form we would welcome, though not necessarily as a continuous course nor as excluding other historical work, the study of contemporary events, government, public affairs, a survey of the British Commonwealth of Nations, its achievements and its tasks, and the history of other nations and questions of international relations. At this age problems of this kind interest many pupils, though by no means all; and newspapers and wireless keep such questions perpetually before their notice. We do not dwell at length on the content of such work in history either in the fifth or sixth forms; it is bound to be individual in character and to depend on the particular interests and knowledge of the staff. For we think that it would gain in width and interest if the special knowledge of various members of the staff were used from time to time to illustrate aspects of the main theme; courses of this kind should not become the special preserve of the history teacher, though clearly they must be planned and largely undertaken by him.

It is in such a treatment of history in the last years of school life that we believe the best contribution can be made in schools to the growth of an informed democracy, in so far as that contribution can be made through classroom instruction. We have naturally had under careful consideration the question of the teaching of civics. Such teaching has had its successes and its failures. We would not ourselves approach the preparation of a child for life as a citizen in a democracy through direct instruction in the duties of the good citizen, and for two main reasons: first, because we think that good citizenship finds its sanction in something at the same time more fundamental and more pervasive than classroom instruction, that the qualities which make a good citizen are taught by or caught from the quality of the general life of the school; secondly, because the instruction, which can be of value only if those qualities are presupposed, springs most naturally and effectively from the study of ordinary school subjects, particularly history, provided that those subjects are treated, when appropriate, in such a way as to be of relevance and significance to the present day. It is to this last proviso that we would call attention, for it is here that reform in our opinion is most needed. For this reason we have made the recommendations which we have made and which we summarise thus:

(i) by the age of sixteen every pupil should have had the opportunity of studying those aspects of British and world history which relate to the conditions of the age in which he lives; arising from this work would spring naturally the fuller treatment of the British Commonwealth, of the United States of America and of Russia, which is possible in the sixth form;

(ii) in the sixth form the greater maturity of the pupils and their widening interests make it desirable that more direct approach should be made to contemporary history, and to questions of central and local government, public affairs and special studies in the history of foreign nations or the British Commonwealth, including such topics as the growth of democratic ideals.

In connection with the work, particularly of the main school, we would emphasise the value of illustrative material. Provision should be made for the acquisition of such material and for its storing in such a way that it is easily available; for this purpose the setting aside of a room as a history room is felt by some teachers to be an advantage, while others dislike concentration of material in one place on the ground that it is less readily available to other members of the staff who also teach history. This is a question which can be decided only in the light of the organisation of the teaching of each school. Apart from the acquisition of such material, much depends on the skill and aptness with which it is used.

It is particularly important that books of the right kind should be available in the school library, as much for the lower forms as for sixth form work. Direction in their choice and in methods of use is very necessary.