{"id":4383,"date":"2013-08-01T08:40:16","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T07:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=4383"},"modified":"2013-08-01T08:40:16","modified_gmt":"2013-08-01T07:40:16","slug":"gove-the-curriculum-and-all-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2013\/08\/01\/gove-the-curriculum-and-all-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Gove, the curriculum, and all that"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Education Forum<\/a><\/em> carried a sharp article recently on Gove, history and the history curriculum. \u00a0It's here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This will make pleasant reading for all those who despise Gove's overly-political influence on the school \/ national curriculum \u2013 and that not inconsiderable number who just don't like the man. \u00a0It's about a Simon Schama talk at the Hay Festival. \u00a0This is how the piece begins ...<\/p>\n

Prof Schama, who visited classes as part of his research, called the finalised document \u201cinsulting and offensive<\/em>\u201d, \u201cpedantic and utopian<\/em>\u201d and accused Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, of constructing a \u201cridiculous shopping list<\/em>\u201d of subjects.\u2028\u2028 \u00a0The new curriculum proposes to teach children history in chronological order, and is intended to give them a sense of the triumphs of the British people.\u2028\u2028 \u00a0But, speaking at the Telegraph Hay Festival, Prof Schama \u2014 who acknowledged his own contribution to the plans \u2014 said that the syllabus was like \u201c1066 and All That, but without the jokes<\/em>\u201d.\u2028\u2028 \u00a0\u201cThis is a document written by people who have never sat and taught 12-year-olds in a classroom,<\/em>\u201d he told an audience of teachers. \u00a0\u201cNone of you should sign up to it until we trap Michael Gove in a classroom and tell him to get on with it.\u2028\u2028\" \u00a0\u201cYou want to say to him, 'Let\u2019s go into a class of nine-year-olds and do the kingdom of Mercia with them. I would love to see how you would do that\u2019<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added the new syllabus would require teaches to \u201cwhoosh<\/em>\u201d through the English, Scottish and Irish civil wars in \u201csomething like 45 minutes<\/em>\u201d, while the French Revolution received \u201ca drive-by 10 minutes<\/em>\u201d. \u00a0\u201cThe list of subjects seems to be essentially memories of A-levels circa 1965, embalmed in aspic and sprinkled with tokenism,<\/em>\u201d he said. \u201cTokenism of the wrong kind<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He claimed that the proposals were too focused on white males, with too much emphasis on \u201chow Britain influenced the world<\/em>\u201d rather than vice versa. \u00a0He added that the \u201cinsulting, offensive, imperviousness of what it takes to unite together the history of the glorious heritage of Britain<\/em>\u201d could be demonstrated by the inclusion of Clive of India, who established the supremacy of the East India Company in 18th-century Bengal. \u00a0Calling him a \u201csociopathic, corrupt thug<\/em>\u201d, who made \u201cour most dodgy bankers look like a combination of Mary Poppins and Jesus Christ<\/em>\u201d, Prof Schama said the topic would not help ethnic minority children understand their own place in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHistory is not about self-congratulation. It\u2019s not really about chasing the pedigree of the wonderfulness of us,\u201d he said. \u201cNor about chasing the pedigree of the reprehensible awful nature of us<\/em>. <\/span>History is meant to keep the powerful awake at night and keep them honest<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes. \u00a0Every aspect of education has that capability and purpose, and one focused on sustainability particularly so. \u00a0Oddly, Conservative governments tend not to be too keen on that purpose as they are on, say, cultural transmission and replication, not forgetting the tendency to have a bottom-line focus on jobs, skills and the economy. \u00a0That's one reason those of us with an interest in sustainability are having our present difficulties with curriculum reform. \u00a0The newly-revised national curriculum, now out for yet another *!*!*! consultation \u2013 the last I trust, and one I'll not be taking part in \u2013 does have a modest focus on climate change, but not on the unsustainability of the current socio-economic system. \u00a0This is like a doctor fixing symptoms, but ignoring underlying causes [in a dying patient].<\/p>\n

NB<\/em><\/strong>, I've added the bracketed text because this is how some people see it. But it's far too David [gloomy doomy] Orr<\/a> for me. \u00a0Meanwhile, here's a different Guardian\u00a0piece<\/a> on Gove and curriculum which has nice lines on exceeding children's potential, on how 'quality' always needs an adjective, and on the use of \"disappointment\" \u2013 a word to use even more than I currently do, it seems. \u00a0I shall need no reminding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Education Forum carried a sharp article recently on Gove, history and the history curriculum. \u00a0It's here. This will make pleasant reading for all those who despise Gove's overly-political influence on the school \/ national curriculum \u2013 and that not...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}