What has Sir Donald Bradman got to do with Aussie histroy all he did was to change the face cricket.When i went to school i leant about the holocoust of WW1 WW2 AND THE Koren War and Veiteman War.

‘Robbie’ from Perth, a reader of ninemsn, gives his enlightened view on the teaching of Australian history in our schools.

Howard’s immaculate perception of Australian history, the Guide-to-the-75-events-all-Orstrayans-must-know, was released last week:

The Guide sets out a framework of topics, key events and people that have shaped our nation. It also outlines the range of skills which the study of Australian history can help to develop. I’d like to thank those who have shaped this Guide [including] Associate Professor Tony Taylor who was commissioned to do further work.

Only problem is that Associate Professor Tony Taylor himself thinks it’s crap:

The course, if implemented as it stands, is scarcely teachable and will almost certainly alienate large numbers of both teachers and students, killing off any long-term interest in the subject. 

The professor’s main criticism is that Johnny’s course isn’t feasible because it tries to cram too much content into not enough class time. Now I’m no high-school teacher (which shouldn’t matter; neither were those who wrote this tripe) but trying to teach 75 so-called key topics into 150 hours of class (an average of two hours each) isn’t going to work. There’s going to be a helluva lot of rushing, glossing over and simplification. A bad case of flu, some tonsilitis or a broken bone and some kid might miss the whole 19th century. Very little contextualisation, depth, competing viewpoints or critical thinking. No opportunity for anything remotely interesting like field trips, museum visits or research projects either; just lots of teacher-talking and read-this-answer-that stuff.  Boooooorring.

Way to kill any interest in the humanities, Johnny. Hopefully your next involvement with history is to become part of it.