Should History Be Taught In Schools

History, although it is what defines the world we live in today still causes conflict in the Australian curriculum. Arguments are often about what should be taught in history in our schools. For many its underlining issues is that it not only represents the good that has happened in the past, but also clearly delves into the dark side and this can quite confronting at times. The world wars are a clear contender in these issues for the most part they are what have shaped our very nation today, for instance the second world war had such an impact that Paul Kelly argues it “remade Australia” it industrialized the nation with over 400 new products being produced within Australia alone, this however impressive is built on the fact that about 50,000 …show more content…
It seems that the teaching of history has become less dignified, as what is being taught isn’t giving realistic views on history. Furthermore the subject comes across as boring and students are unable to relate. Results show that “in 2006 only 1243 students took the subject” Australian history in year 12 in Victoria, the numbers are dismal compared to the “4832 students” who took on revolutions history in the same year. So why such drastic differences between the two histories? If you compare the two subjects it becomes more clear, In revolutions history you generally study two countries for example; Russia and China, and you simply study and look at what took place during the times of their revolutions, overall the subject is more interesting you look at the fights and battles and leaders who are known world wide like Mao and Stalin. Compared to Australian history where you look at the country from the beginning the course is so content heavy and difficult for students to memorize so much information in short periods of time, along with this you revise many of topics students have previously studied so again boredom sets in over the subject. The word “mandate” or “compulsory” is something that is becoming more linked to the subject and for many teachers and students this is creating a concern, as they believe it is “the quickest way to turn their …show more content…
For many educators teaching the subject is difficult based upon the curriculum that has been created for the subject, teachers argue that there is too much to learn on too little time with much of the information being repeated from other years. It is also argues that there may be too much focus on the world wars, which is causing students to attach a militaristic view on Australia’s background. The last argument is that there has the curriculum has had many topics introduced that teachers are not having enough time to learn and source enough for each new topic. So what could be done to change this? The HTAA submitted for a review of the history curriculum some of the issues that they wanted addressed was repetition of information and spreading information over different years so students are always learning something new. Spreading information over different years could allow for more in depth studies and using students interests to feed assessment, for example studying the rise of western civilization students could pick what area in particular they want to have a focus on and relay their information back to the class. The world wars could still play a major part in the history but also by linking it to other events that were happening at the time around the world may cause more in depth thinking, for instance in year nine when researching world war 2 you could look