History has a future as well as a past

Published on Sunday 20 January 2008 20:34

WHAT we teach as history, and how we teach it, require continuous review as our own circumstances and attitudes change. For history has always been more than the learning of dates and "kings, corpses and coronations". It is the tracing of a continuous, systematic narrative of the human story.

We study the past, not as a set of unchanging events but for the way in which these events have had transformational power to shape the future. That is how we can learn so much about the present – and something of the future – by looking into the past.

So the launch today by the education secretary, Fiona Hyslop, of new guidance on what children should learn in schools is welcome, and merits broad and careful consideration. Her ambition is to ensure that future generations of children do not miss out on discovering Scotland's proud history, and its own transformational power. It is, she reminds us, "a story of immense achievement in industry, medicine, science and literature on a scale which belies the size of the population".

It has been a frequent complaint of the SNP – and of that broader national consciousness it represents – that insufficient attention has been paid to the teaching of Scottish history; that children leaving school have only the thinnest grasp of the history of Scotland. It is, of course, an attitude that can be taken to extremes.

One of the reasons why there has been so much concentration in schools in recent decades on the history of Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler has been to serve as a warning to younger people on the dangers of a warped and murderous nationalism. But that is not a barrier to children gaining an appreciation of our own history and achievements, particularly where they have helped to improve the human condition through, for example, the Scottish Enlightenment, the advances in science and engineering and the contribution made by Scots writers and thinkers.

It is also appropriate that more time should be taken in the teaching of local history and the forces that have helped to shape the outlook and development of the different regions within Scotland. History taught well, and engagingly, creates an interest and understanding of the dominant institutions that shape our lives today, and, through that engagement, to a desire to influence events in our own age by informed and responsible participation in civic life.

Of particular merit is a suggested new emphasis on making history relevant to children's own experiences. The use of collaborative learning, technology and field trips will continue to be encouraged. For those concerned about over centralisation and the imposition of curricula from above and outside the teaching profession, both the flexibility of the proposals and their generality will allow plenty of scope for schools to shape and influence the teaching of history to their own best knowledge, skills and practice.