Keep hidden agendas out of history teaching

SO the government wants to make compulsory the study of history in schools.

Naturally, given South Africa’s past experiences, a lot of people are asking what kind of history will be taught.

Well, history is the sum of artefacts, documents and other chronicles of known accomplishments and failures, events which happened, people who made an impact on the world.

Given the often brutal nature of people, I call it “humanity’s ugly bedtime story”.

The other thing is that there are really only two kinds of history: the truth about what happened and the propaganda version.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter how much we know.

What matters is whether what we know is true, and how that knowledge is used in the present and future, because if we learn lies or don’t take the truth seriously, we’ll repeat mistakes and suffer the same consequences, yet always expect different results.

That would make us deluded, misinformed, ignorant, stupid and, worse, insane – not a good state of affairs, I’d say.

If you want to teach our nation’s children history, give them The Histories by Herodotus, because that’s what started the whole thing.

It is Europe’s first history book, about 2 400 years old and the reason why he is called father of history.

Not terribly accurate by modern standards, but it’s pretty much the template for how we do things today, when we tell what happened, where, when, who did it and how, then most importantly, why.

Do you want to know why your neighbour wears a skullcap and doesn’t work on Saturdays, where Christianity comes from and why it has a stubborn streak? Read Jewish Antiquities by Flavius Josephus.

Want to know what happens when you fight a superpower? Read The Jewish War by the same author.

For how strategic decisions are made and blunders happen, there’s The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides.

Do you want to be powerful and stay that way? Read The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli.

The history I was taught in school made it seem like the USSR went from a feudal to an industrial state in two decades all by itself, Japan launched the attack on Pearl Harbour without provocation, the Vietnam War started when the North Vietnamese navy fired on US navy destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin and Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

It was only after leaving school that I learnt differently, after I bought history books such as those I named above and read dry three public libraries in less than 10 years.

Schools haven’t the resources and time to teach the world’s complicated truth, while many of our kids lack the inclination to learn it.

Forcing them to do this is wrong if it’s for political instead of educational reasons, because that’s when hidden agendas and propaganda do their worst.

Keep the study of history voluntary, though if you’re going to teach it, at least teach the truth.

Mircea Negres Port Elizabeth