Teaching about a nation’s past, particularly about dark or confronting events, remains as contested as ever. As a History teacher, I’m often struck by the topics students engage with and those they do not. Many students still claim that learning about their national history is ‘boring’, or ‘repetitive’, or at worst both. There are times when my colleagues and I lament that the transfer of history knowledge and skills seems to generate more passion and enthusiasm in the halls and corridors of politics than it does in our classrooms. We are reminded constantly that History, particularly the content delivered in schools, should not just be taught as a nation building exercise.
Numerous surveys reveal low levels of national historical knowledge among school children, and there is a genuine concern that our students are becoming more ignorant when it comes to their nation’s heritage and past. Australia is not alone in this predicament. A survey revealed that only one in three Americans would pass the U.S. citizenship multiple-choice test — although the majority of immigrants taking a similar exam could meet the standard. The British newspaper The Telegraph reported significant public concern over results of a survey in which some schoolchildren alarmingly thought Adolf Hitler was Britain’s Prime Minister in World War II. There is a strong argument for making History a compulsory subject and this has been debated in other national arenas, most recently in New Zealand.
At Queenwood, all students study History until the end of Year 10. In their last year of studying History together, we teach a unit called Comparative Genocide. Since not all students choose History for IB or HSC, we have decided that this confronting unit should be delivered at the beginning of Year 10. We want students to be informed citizens and participants in democracy, and this involves them knowing about the past, particularly when humanity turned its back on civilisation. This comparative unit is designed to help to explain how ordinary people not only participated in such awful things but actually stood by quietly and lived fairly ordinary lives whilst atrocities occurred. Many accounts of the Nazi period depict a barely imaginable series of events, including irrational hatred and extreme behaviours carried out by groups with extreme ideologies. In fact, we often talk of “a nation gone mad.” Yet while most of us understand Nazism as a form of tyranny, many German citizens did not know before 1933 that Nazism was evil.
Our students learn about the Holocaust, Armenian Genocide, Cambodia, Rwanda and Myanmar. By including “other genocides” we acknowledge the importance of these historical events and their victims, and we also ensure that our students do not simply assume that the Holocaust was an anomaly in history. Genocides are not inevitable events, but our students need to understand that we bear collective responsibility to prevent such dangers.
It is a confronting unit but it offers our students the crucial recognition that genocide is not simply a disease of the past, but one that continues to infect contemporary society. Unfortunately, history tells us that we cannot assume that our children will always reside in a nation where democratic practices and norms continue to prevail. Teaching our students about a difficult and confronting past is in many ways an antidote to the poison diffused by extremism.
As Germany’s ambassador to Rwanda, S. Peter Fahrenholtz, stated in his address to the Rwandan people in 2015, “If there is anything Germany can share from its own experience, it is this: facing up to the grim truth of what took place is the only path to begin reconciliation. A past that is not examined fully and honestly will remain a burden for the future.”
In an increasingly connected world, it is vital that we teach our students, as digital citizens, to challenge and question why and how horrific events occurred. In doing this, we are preparing our students to leave the classroom:
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thinking like historians, who do not accept claims without adequate evidence;
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capable of distinguishing between truth and lies, including in the digital world;
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and aware of their civic responsibility and the fundamental role they will play in our democratic process.
With the potential for information to be changed and manipulated, we make it our business to ensure that our Year 10 students have these essential skills. It is more important than ever.
Ms Jo Keeling-Lowe
Head of History