Mr Gove and the re-writing of History

One of the characteristics of a military dictatorship, in the early stages, is the dramatic announcement that the dictator will sweep away a corrupt system; and examples of corruption are then produced - examples that are sufficiently misleading you would get prosecuted if you tried to make an advertisement out of them! One of the purposes of this initial approach is to instil a degree of fear into the situation. So while I wouldn't interpret Mr Gove's acquisition of scores of dictatorial powers over education as a 'dictatorship' it does rather go against the spirit of the Constitutional History I thought we were being asked to teach.

Then there's book-burning. I think it is highly likely to happen if Mr Gove gets his way - though mainly metaphorically speaking. This is indeed what happened when the National Curriculum was introduced, when the disposal of old textbooks became a real problem for the school caretaker at my school. It was 'out with the old and in with the new'. I am still extremely grateful to Heinemann for producing a textbook on the Romans, complete with AT's and tests, in record time - vital for colleagues for whom 'it was not their period'.

History was 're-written' by the introduction of the National Curriculum. The less prescriptive version produced a couple of years ago was no doubt a belated attempt to allow more flexibility, but the damage was already done. Now we're in danger of another revision. The Secretary of State after all did began by implying our children had been betrayed by current History teaching.

What dropped out of History were many of the interesting bits which couldn't be fitted into the National Curriculum. In some cases it was the pet project of a head of department who was interested in, say, trains. In others it was massive topic areas. For example before the N.C. a good deal of World History and Modern History was being taught. Modern History was saved after a row, but World History, in the sense of non-European World History, disappeared in practice though not on paper, something OFSTED complained about. British History alone was safe.

We await the deliberations of Mr Gove's kitchen cabinet with bated breath. And that is precisely the problem. I wouldn't want any of them actually in my classroom, except perhaps in a consultative capacity. The best schemes of work come from ordinary bread-and-butter History teachers, whether heads of department or teams.