|
"So poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history, for while poetry is concerned with universal truths, history treats of particular facts"(Aristotle's Poetics). |
The discussion was getting intense. Colleagues were engaged in debate and voices had been elevated to a level slightly above civilized chit-chat and just below that of actual bellowing. Opinions were expressed, authors cited, movements defended, themes articulated and points of view charted. What surprised and enthralled at one and the same time was this round table discussion concerned the contents of a newly revised junior high school history program.
This recent debate centered on a rather benign looking twenty-five page working document offering a new two-year compulsory course of study called "History and Citizenship Education" specifically targeted at what in Quebec are the first years of high school; grades seven and eight (ages roughly 13 and 14). It is perhaps significant to note that this debate would most probably not happen in any other province or territory in Canada.
Simply put, History - as a serious subject worthy of independent study and investigation - does not exist in the vast majority of elementary and secondary schools in Canada. In Quebec, contrary to an apparent pan-Canadian trend, History is actually called "History" and is compulsory in every grade throughout all of the school years.
|
"The simple truth is that Canada's public and high schools have not only stopped teaching most world history, but have also given up teaching anything we might call Canadian or national history" (Granatstein, 1998, page 11). |
As in much of what he stated about the teaching of History in Quebec's schools, Granatstein had it wrong. Most probably operating from that all important central Canadian (Ontario) view that anything that happened prior to the arrival of the United Empire Loyalists can be considered ancient and of little consequence, Who Killed Canadian History? (1998) skewed the Quebec educational reality in the interests of scoring political points. History has always been a strong subject amongst Quebeckers (one cannot receive the official high school leaving certificate without successfully passing a province-wide examination) and the evolving curriculum reforms demonstrate a level of scholarship and commitment that will leave other jurisdictions humble with envy.
The views expressed by many so-called History/Education populists (usually by those who do not hold any professional pedagogical credentials at all and have never even taught within the public school system) assume that History is only of interest to those of some arbitrarily determined age. In this narrow world view, children are deemed to be without story and to be incapable of dealing with concepts, notions and ideas that might have a foundation in the past. It is clear that such pundits have never engaged elementary youngsters in any serious manner and have not reviewed the stellar work of classroom researchers such as VanSledright and Brophy (1997) or Levstik and Barton (1997).
In a like manner, assumptions are made that secondary aged pupils are likewise afflicted with this same innate inability to deal with time, narrative and/or story in any meaningful way. Similarly, the very recent works by Nash, Crabtree and Dunn (2000) as well as Stearns, Seixas and Wineburg (2000), as but two examples, are also ignored as not fitting this neo-historical anti-school stance.
The imported, ill-informed and un-Canadian phrases "social studies" and "social sciences" have been banished to the vocabulary dustbin. Never comfortable within the psyche of this unique Canadian entity, it is gratifying to note that words are indeed important, titles do mean something, and subject domains are to be studied for lengthy periods of time. Hence, the word "History" has been re-enforced in its rank as one of the cardinal subjects within the overall Quebec school curriculum.
The central and overriding point is that pupils in Quebec schools will be engaged in an integrated and sequential view of the study of History from age 6 up to an including age 17. In the elementary grades, students will be exposed, for example, to Aboriginal and First Nation Peoples prior to the European invasion, exploration of the land and conquest of the peoples, fur and fish empires, as well as beginning discussions around the topic of citizenship education. At the secondary level, students will enjoy a two-year World survey course (euphuistically called Plato to NATO); another two year course of study will deal exclusively with the history of Quebec and Canada; and a final graduating year course that will concentrate on World issues. In sum, Quebeckers will be completing eleven years of study of History!
Attached to this historical adventure, all students will also study an elusive component called "citizenship education". Moving far beyond the concept of a simple 'civics' course or a 'how are laws passed' primer, citizenship education has been integrated into every History course at every level. This twenty percent course addendum will deal, broadly, with the rights of citizens; collective and individual responsibilities; local, provincial and national governance; as well as explore the international arena.
The elementary courses of study are now in place in every school in the Province. Children are engaged in the story of History. The new secondary courses, the one for example that generated the heated debate that opened this report, will be operational as of September 2003. Over the next couple of years, the other sequential History secondary courses will be put into place so that, by 2005, Quebec will be have an integrated and comprehensive Historical program.
The study of History at many levels is alive and well in Quebec. The on-going program changes have engaged educators, classroom practitioners as well as professional historians in dialogue and debate that might have been unimaginable at other times or in other locations. Along with its new attendant Citizenship Education, students will have an opportunity to not only learn about the past, but have an opportunity to have their own personal narrative placed within an ever moving continuum.
References
Granatstein, J. L. (1998). Who Killed Canadian History? Toronto, ON: HarperCollins Publishers.
Levstik, Linda s. and Keith C. Barton. (1997). Doing History: Investigating With Children in Elementary and Middle Schools. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.
Nash, Gary B., Charlotte Crabtree and Ross E. Dunn. (2000). History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Stearns, Peter N., Peter Seixas and Sam Wineburg. (2000). Editors. Knowing, Teaching and Learning History: National and International Perspectives. New York, NY: New York University Press.
VanSledright, Bruce and Jere Brophy. (1997). Teaching and Learning History in Elementary Schools. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.