Frankgol suggests the following:

• the origins of each student's personal history; - this is generally how history is introduced to students in early PRIMARY school
• the origins of the students' political, economic, cultural and social contexts; - see above
• Australian heritage in all its diversity including Indigenous history, and how different people have experienced the past and how the past shapes us; - this is how it is presented in SECONDARY SCHOOL
• historically-based aspects of popular culture; - like what?
• key moments in international history and the role, if any, that Australia played. In Secondary school in year 11 and 12 students had/have a choice of ancient or modern history - this is taught in modern history. The two topics above cover primary school to about year 3 or 4, so we need history from year 5 through to year 7 and then in secondary school right through to at least year 10.

Thinking skills....historical thinking, skills and values..... research skills, critical examination of evidence, drawing inferences, putting forward careful explanations of why things happened the way they did .....

- but don't you understand that this can only come about through the teaching of history, geography, sciences. By teaching students these subjects from the very early years of primary school - they develop the SKILLS for this critical thinking. Students cannot think critically, research effectively etc if they do not have the foundations upon which to build

I would expect schools to teach students how to present informed, sequenced and persuasive argument based on historical evidence and interpretation. - The toolkit would enable and encourage students to continue to learn long after they have left school and to contribute as adults to debates on politics, economics, culture and social issues.

- I agree with you here, but don't you see, we need to teach the children the basics, the very foundations upon which these skills can develop. We wish for these lofty ideals, but they very quickly collapse, wanting for solid foundations in literacy and numeracy etc.

Dresdener,

The quotation from Kevin Donnelly is not an accurate account of how history is taught in schools. I say this as a former history teacher. You are able to get course documents from various education authorities for an outline of what is covered in history. I was never told to “give priority to gender, multicultural, global, futures and Indigenous perspectives”; nor was “Australia’s Anglo-Celtic heritage…either marginalised or ignored”; nor was “Indigenous culture…portrayed as beyond reproach”. In Victorian secondary schools, students are taught about ancient civilisations, the Middle Ages, the First Fleet, Gold, World War One, the Great Depression, World War Two and our political system.

From the aboriginal perspective, European settlement was an invasion, just as the Romans invaded Britain and so on through human history. That is not to say that the invasion can be undone or that if the British had not come here no one else would have or that there were not benefits as well as costs that resulted, but it is foolish not to see it for what it was.

Students are not taught a “politically correct, post-modernist history curriculum” which “resembles a full-scale assault on our nation’s moral legitimacy”. There is no “indoctrination of young Australians in anti-Western, multicultural moral relativist nonsense”. The teaching of history is not “warped”.

I keep reading about the PC takeover of our schools as they are dumbed down by cultural theorists, deconstructionists, post-modernists, Marxists and Maoists in some mind-boggling conspiracy to produce illiterate slaves to the New World Order, yet all my experience has been that the far more serious attacks on education have come from the economic rationalists who have cut resources, imposed soul-destroying and time-consuming accountability requirements, harshly exploited teachers while cutting their pay and bogged schools down in inefficient competition.

The under-achievement of some of our students is a national disgrace, but the continual false claims of left-wing indoctrination will not help them.

Chris C

Very well put...but will it be read?

zahira

You asked me what I would like to see taught as history. You didn't specify and age level so I gave a generic answer - how can you cover P-12 in 350 words?

But I don't think some history topics are intrinsically easier to do than other topics. Genealogy, e.g., is studied at adult levels but I agree it would be interesting to primary students. Age is not crucial - it's what the teacher and student make of the topic that counts. It can be sophisticated or elementary.

I think popular culture is so pervasive in our lives that it's important for students to study how it has become so infusive across nations and how technology has shaped our lives (and continues to do so). The scope is enormous - mass media, film, TV, mass consumption music, popular fiction, advertising, the internet, body adornment, dress etc. There are fascinating historical explanations to the development of all of these. And sociopolitical issues like state control (or lack of it), the spread of ideas internationally, etc.

The skills I mentioned develop along with the content - one can't learn them in serial fashoin; they interact. You can't teach skills and attitudes like respect for evidence without content...but there is so much content to choose from. The price of any curriculm you choose is the curriculum that might have been.

And it's perfectly obvious that children can't study history adequately without being literate. That's not an argument.

I love history and want my kids to love it too. It's a crucial area of learning. But I don't want a government to dictate a syllabus that all must endure.

It may not be read, but it can exist for future reference, as can the following year 8 history course, with its absence of Marxist post-modernist PC lefty propaganda:

A student should:

1. show knowledge and understanding of medieval societies:
1.1 daily life, the role and work of various groups, the division of labour between men and women, education, rituals and family, clothing, housing;
1.2 the values and beliefs of medieval societies through their religions, myths and legends, and their social and political structures;
1.3 the ways that medieval societies were governed, political features and the nature of the political system, the dominant groups and how they established and maintained power;
1.4 key events and significant individuals (the fall of Rome, the Viking raids, the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror);
1.5 the influence of trade and contact with other cultures.

2. know and use historical concepts:
2.1 time – chronology and sequencing, change and continuity, the ability to locate periods within a time frame;
2.2 cause and effect.

3. compare key aspects of medieval and present societies;
3.1 aspects of 1 in medieval and modern times;
3.2 influences of medieval societies on contemporary societies; for example, the origins of written law, democracy and the calendar; the limitations on the power of the monarchs (through the rule of law and the writ of habeas corpus); and the origins of major world religions;
3.3 key concepts of democracy, governance, the rule of law, justice, religion, liberty, authority, leadership, culture;
3.4 key individuals’ contributions and legacies.

4.use historical conventions:
4.1 use of a variety of primary and secondary sources;
4.2 evaluation of historical sources for meaning, completeness, point of view, values and attitudes;
4.3 reflection on strengths and limitations of historical documents;
4.4 identification of the content, origin, purpose and context of historical sources.

5. use historical processes:
5.1 framing key research questions to guide their investigations, planning their inquiries;
5.2 using appropriate historical evidence to present a point of view and to report on their findings;
5.3 documenting sources by using a bibliography and footnotes.