Well, this shouldn't provoke any outrage at all.
According to a recent story in the Guardian, if a new proposed curriculum gets passed, primary school students wouldn't have to learn about the Victorians or World War II.
What replaces those topics?
Children [should] leave primary school familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication. They must gain "fluency" in handwriting and keyboard skills, and learn how to use a spellchecker alongside how to spell.
The Guardian, 3.25.09
I'm all about encouraging the use of podcasting and other technologies, though replacing history lessons to do so seems unwise at best, at least from a political standpoint. Maybe I'm being too harsh, though: thanks to Twitter, they'll only have 140 characters to communicate their ignorance anyway.
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2 comments:
Well, as George Orwell taught, history isn't worth learning anyway...it's not like "erasing" it from the curriculum so we can focus only on the present would bring us one step closer to 1984 or anything! Can you detect the sarcasm? I'm sorry, but as a high school English teacher, I firmly believe that I can teach my students Beowulf AND use podcasts and blogging to do so (in fact, I've already done that this year). There's no reason historical awareness and a grasp of modern technology need to be mutually exclusive.
On a sidenote, I have to disagree with Wikipedia as a valid source. Though I can see its use for primary school, I don't allow my juniors and seniors to use it for research papers, as it's generally not allowed at the college level.
Erin, I love your blog! Thanks to you, I've started downloading Podcasts like mad, and my morning walks with the dog have suddenly become intellectually stimulating.
-Sarah from Grinnell
Thanks, Sarah. The one thing that gave me pause about the whole story was the fact that kids were learning about the Victorians and WWII in elementary school. I have no idea if that's something we covered in elementary school when I was a kid—and I suspect it wouldn't have made much of an impression regardless—so I didn't think it was *quite* as appalling as I'm sure others will.
I do think that kids are going to learn the technology mentioned regardless of whether it's taught in schools. But the Victorians? Probably not so much. Well, unless the Jonas Brothers star in a movie about them.
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