[Stones] History in UK Education

[belshade]

Tim and all,

Only too glad to champion prehistory in UK education. And that also entails
getting away from the image of the hairy skin-clad "Neanderthals" still
depicted building Stonehenge. Come to think of it Stonehenge was the only
monument they are seen to have created anyway - obviously it is
"respectable" whereas stone circles, dolmens, cursuses etc. are not.

I have an idea that in some Irish schools at least there is an attempt to
teach about prehistory at primary school level. Perhaps in the pious hope
that it may create a generation which will refrain from sticking motorways
on top of their country's heritage? (Assuming there is anything left to
learn about a generation hence) One problem I think has been how to continue
the prehistory theme into the secondary system and making it part of the
secondary syllabus.

As I see it such a syllabus in the British Isles would have to start around
8000BC when global warming was making Northern Europe habitable and people
and ideas (such as farming) were on the move by ocean, river, and land. One
spin-off would be to remove a lot of parochialism in that the British Isles
would be seen to be not even "England" or "Ireland" etc. but part of a
common culture involving the Middle East and Europe generally.

To members of the "Stones" group of course the movement of the Megalithic
culture involving the Atlantic seaboard from North Africa to Scandinavia
would be a vital part.

One great advantage of prehistory is that it avoids some of the aspects
which have turned people off traditional history in the past. These are
dates, names of characters, clauses of treaties and of acts of Parliament,
causes of wars and details of their campaigns etc. etc. Back to good
fundamental and basic thinking and to an understanding of the evolution of
society, of religious thinking, and of political structure, as well as the
fundamentals of and origin of technology.

Above all the concept of a "chain" of human culture from Mesopotamia to
Egypt, Crete, Greece, Rome, and thence to Western Europe should be taught.
As well cultures of America and the Far East would need to be considered
even though apparently not impacting so directly on that of Britain.

Here in NZ I have been in involved in tutoring adult Community Education for
some years. The interest of settlers of British origin or ancestry in their
ancient past has been most rewarding - and also most frustrating in that so
many had been "turned off " history at school and in any case had no
education in prehistory at all.

I feel that a group like "Stones" would be an ideal pressure-group in this
respect.

Desmond.







.





-----Original Message-----
From: stones-bounces at henge.org.uk [mailto:stones-bounces at henge.org.uk]On
Behalf Of Tim P
Sent: Saturday, 21 July 2007 3:27 a.m.
To: The Stones Mailing List
Subject: [Stones] History in UK Education

Encouraging to see a wider spread being called for in teaching history:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article210
6450.ece

But where is the prehistory?

I saw a few minutes of this on BBC Breakfast this morning, with a couple
enthusiastic history bods - but *everything* was from the flamin' Romans
onwards...

Perhaps with a better spread of history knowledge, property developers
might begin to realise that we've only begun to build huge settlements
on flood plains in last century or so...

Anyone to champion prehistory in British school education?

Tim


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