The purposes of school history
History for employability (and underemployment, leisure time, early
retirement?)
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A
curriculum which must give young people a sense of purpose
and an awareness of the potentialities for their lives when
they will not be working. Whatever we feel about the future
of unemployment, all young people are going to be living in
a world where they will retire younger, work shorter working
weeks, and enjoy longer holidays. If the curriculum as a
whole, and history in particular, does not defend its
contribution to the use of leisure in a powerful, convinced
and publicly unapologetic way, it will have contributed to
major social problems for which the tax-payer
retrospectively may well justifiably criticise the school
curriculum. HMI
(educationalist) (1985) History in the primary and
secondary years, London, HMSO.
A subject
that insists on the critical evaluation of evidence … and
encourages the analysis of problems and the communication of
ideas, not only contributes to pupils’ general education but
develops skills and perceptions that increase the
employability of young people.HMI
(educationalist) (1985)
History in the primary and
secondary years, London, HMSO: 12. |
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‘History
provides qualities of mind which can be successfully applied
to a range of administrative and social tasks… Indeed, it is
possible to argue that history is the best training for
potential administrators, precisely because the problems it
deals with are recognised from the outset as complex rather
than simple, and with people whom it seeks to understand
rather than to categorise… it emphasises consequently,
powers of reasoning which are balanced and humane –
characteristics that it may be hoped a society would want
not only in its administrators, but also in its men of
business and public affairs.’ |
Sylvester,
D. (1972) ‘What’s the use of learning history’, Times
Higher Educational Supplement, 11 February. |
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