How to teach colonial history? More troubles in France | 18 comments (18 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: How to teach colonial history? More troubles i (4.00 / 2)

Well, let's see. I went to some good private schools in the UK. In secondary school my choices meant that I only did History up to age 16.

Frankly, in secondary school we barely touched on colonisation. In essence we just skipped over it. From Glorious Revolution to World War One somehow we missed it.

In primary school however, we got a good dose of the greatness of Empire. Not really a deep perversion of the facts, more just a direction towards pretty artefacts and steam engines and the like.

The propaganda element came more from the old films on TV more than anything.

Fortunately for me, my father (being Indian) had firm views on the downsides of British colonisation, so I did get a balanced view, but no thanks to my education.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Fri Dec 9th, 2005 at 01:55:03 PM EST

Re: How to teach colonial history? (none / 1)

At the public high school I attended in France our history teacher did cover the slave trade in quite some detail but mostly as a British/US phenomenon (ironic since we where in Bordeaux which was one of the big French ports active in the slave trade). As for colonial history I know we covered the early Spanish and Dutch colonial empires but not much of more recent colonial history. The sense was that the more recent history was too controversial and would not make it onto our final Baccalaureate exam so it wasn't a priority.

by Alexandra in WMass (alexandra_wmass[a|t]yahoo[d|o|t]fr) on Fri Dec 9th, 2005 at 04:03:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: How to teach colonial history? (none / 0)

To be fair, in primary school we did get a good overview of the horror of the slave ships running from Liverpool to Africa to USA. But, we didn't get much context on the effects beyond the horror for the individual.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Fri Dec 9th, 2005 at 04:15:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

How to teach colonial history? More troubles in France | 18 comments (18 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Top Diaries

Ireland 13 South Africa 8

UNGA: West Censors the South and East

EU VDL State of the Union -- Managing Decay

Rugby World Cup 2023 Week 1 review

Reactionary Visions and eNtiTiES

Sovereignty 2040

Recent Diaries

UA Laboratory NATO First Space War

United Nations In Stalemate Position

Biden's Headache in Middle East: Israel

EU as Client State of Joe's America

Canada's Trudeau Honoring an Ukrainian Nazi Collaborator

Ireland 13 South Africa 8

UNGA: West Censors the South and East

A Tale by Benjamin Franklin

Fail in Democracy Return to Authoritarianism

Yemen From Ceasefire to Peace Talks?

Huge Cost Proxy War of Choice

EU VDL State of the Union -- Managing Decay

Reactionary Visions and eNtiTiES

Top Military War Planning Under Joe Biden - Ukraine

Rugby World Cup 2023 Week 1 review

Joe's Fuck the EU -- Showdown

Modi G20 One Earth, One Family, One Future

Conflict In Syria's Deir Ezzor Province

Sovereignty 2040

Some September Food/Ag Events

Occasional Series