THREAD👇🏼
Decolonisation of the curriculum was needed some 40 years ago

Black/Indian soldiers who fought in the world wars were whitewashed out of history.

The harsh realities of colonialism and slavery skipped over and the Great British Empire exalted

But this is no more.1/7
Every history textbook/teacher I have seen/met teaches colonialism and slavery.

Details vary. Amritsar, Mau Mau rebellion maybe. Gandhi and American civil rights definitely.

Truth is that it is up to individual schools. But the zeitgeist is to teach this. 2/7
We don’t actually know what is and is not taught. The DfE could do a study and find out

We also don’t distinguish between learning and teaching. Just because it is taught, does not mean it has been learned

So much learning is missed in our schools thanks to poor behaviour. 3/7
Chaos reigns in too many classrooms

Kids throwing chairs aren’t interested in analysing the complex reasons for why slavery ended

Is the Atlantic slave trade taught in context of Arab and Slavic slave trades? I don’t know

But does it matter if no one can hear the teacher? 4/7
Our teaching methods too often do not have memory as their focus.

Add in constant disruption and a mere 2 hours per week of history as it is in most schools (sometimes just 1 hour) and you begin to see why topics are taught superficially.

The curriculum is not whitewashed. 5/7
There is an argument to teach about African kingdoms pre slavery which is done more rarely.

Should schools abandon the Tudors, the Cold War or the Anglo-Saxons to teach this?

I don’t think so, not as part of a basic history curriculum which every child should access. 6/7
Should we teach Chinese or Columbian history? We have immigrants from all over the world

Or should we teach British history because we are all British? The good bits and bad?

Secondary school is about a basic offer. Communities can then teach their kids extra stuff at home7/7
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