Making NZ history compulsory in schools a good decision
IN 1916 Henry Ford, of motoring notoriety, commented, ‘‘History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history that we make today.’’
I’ve never seen eyetoeye with Mr Ford in this matter, although I once owned a Ford Cortina which seemed to go all right.
Until recently Mr Ford’s philosophy of history seemed to be guiding our education system but as a distraction from alleged naughtiness in the Beehive and at Labour Party retreats the Government has announced that by 2022 New Zealand history will be taught to all school pupils. And about time!
Those schools which are already teaching history are producing wellrounded, bright, inquisitive people who have no trouble finding employment.
The history graduates at the supermarket strike me as a better type of checkout operator than all the marine biologists and computer game degreeholders working alongside them.
At school I took history to avoid science and thereby was guaranteed being accredited University Entrance.
History also seemed closer to human experience and encouraged thinking about the why, how, when and who of the journalistic mantra.
It certainly beat heating stuff over a Bunsen burner or dissecting some hapless frog.
As a university student I was advised to take law but stuck with history, as the only lawyers I knew seemed to be very seriousminded characters. I’m glad about that decision as, even though history has not brought great monetary rewards, it has kept me happy, and still does.
Of course, I’ve been accused of living in the past but, from today’s viewpoint, it seems a very pleasant neighbourhood. George Orwell took it all rather to heart when he wrote, ‘‘The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history,’’ but I prefer Mark Twain’s more whimsical plea for meaningful historical education, ‘‘Many publicschool children seem to know only two dates — 1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don’t know what happened on either occasion.’’
Twain, of course, was American, but I’m hoping the brave new world of teaching New Zealand history will give children indepth knowledge of Footrot Flats and the ‘‘loss’’ to Wales in 1905.
Naturally, the announcement has led to newspapers and magazines publishing quizzes about our history to prove or disprove the theory that we know very little about our past. The answers are less important than the fact that the questions simply make you think about the past. If you’ve done the quizzes you probably scored well as they tend to be on the easy side. ‘‘Who was New Zealand’s first female prime minister?’’ sort of thing, but this special Nothing Too Serious New Zealand History Quiz is designed to suggest that you know far too little about important events in our past. You time starts now!
1. Who was the first person to set foot on Antarctica?
2. In 1885 New Zealand proposed sending 1000 troops, including 250 Maori, to what country?
3. Which New Zealander became the world’s first Labour prime minister?
4. What rugby first did William Atack of Canterbury achieve in June 1884?
5. Apart from New Zealand and Australia which country marks Anzac Day as a public holiday?
6. Who were banned from New Zealand pubs from 1910 to 1961?
7. Amber, the daughter of New Zealand politician William Pember Reeves, had a child by which famous writer?
8. What did Invercargill’s Edward Godward invent in 1901?
9. What name is given to the Budget of 1958?
10. What is New Zealander Madge Allsop’s claim to fame?
There you have it. A carefullycrafted New Zealand history quiz designed to brighten up your morning as well as tell you all you need to know about our past. Even if you don’t know all the answers your time has not been wasted. You are now fullyarmed to face your next pub quiz. Sadly, the history syllabus to be introduced to our schools will probably hammer away at the Treaty of Waitangi, the Women’s Movement and the Origins of the Labour Party. Where’s the fun in that? Answers.
1. In 1895, a 17yearold from Stewart Island, Alexander von Tunzelman, was first to jump ashore from a whaling boat.
2. Afghanistan.
3. John (Chris) Watson, originally from Oamaru, was Australian Labour prime minister in 1904.
4. The first rugby referee in the world to use a whistle.
5. Tonga.
6. Barmaids.
7. H. G. Wells.
8. The spiral hairclip, the American rights to which he sold for £20,000
($3.6 million today).
9. ‘‘The Black Budget’’, because the price of beer and cigarettes rose, which helped Labour lose the 1960 election.
10. She was the New Zealandborn bridesmaid of superstar Dame Edna Everage.