It takes a lot of hard work to make history boring, but this is something that I hear all the time. “When I was at school it was all dates and kings… but now I find it so interesting!” I hear this on a monthly basis, and it poses a problem for those of us who teach history.
The Balance of Data and Drama
On the one hand, we have raw data, facts, and dates which may not inspire on their own, but are crucial for understanding the chronology of the past. These are essential for the structure of history. On the other hand, we have the rich, interesting, passionate, and engaging stories of the people who lived it. These are moving, but redundant if detached from their place in development. What does it matter that Winston Churchill sat by himself below decks on a destroyer in the North Sea if he is divorced from the titanic struggles of 1939 and the question of who would succeed Neville Chamberlain? Historians must find a happy medium between the facts and the stories within the context of the great metanarratives of our times.
The Importance of Chronology in the Classroom
The National Curriculum seeks to teach children history chronologically, giving them a picture of the past that makes sense. The importance of this is that when they are doing independent learning later as adults, they can use this foundation to understand the world around them.
Old buildings like churches have been in use for centuries, and their development is best understood alongside a wider understanding of contemporary social and political developments. St Sennen’s Church near Land’s End in Cornwall was established around 500 AD, just after the Romans left Britain. A thousand years later, the local pub was built next door when King Henry VIII was a little boy and the Reformation was just a twinkle in his eye. Within the church is a broken statue found in the grounds—a silent testament to the turmoils of that age.
From the Meta to the Micro: Breathing Life into Dry Bones
In addition to a social and political view of history, the historian should have an eye on the “micro”—the personal and the individual. Imagination is a powerful tool to bring to life the experiences of the people of the past.
At St Sennen, I like to imagine the medieval congregation drinking their church ales, their lives as farmers and fishermen, and their festivals and feasts. Imagining the lives of our remote ancestors and the people who lived and worked where we live today breathes life into the dry bones of historical fact.
One of my favourite tools to achieve this is Open Domesday, an online database of the towns and people mentioned in the original survey. In a school setting, when teaching Anglo-Saxons or Vikings, I can reveal to the children exactly who lived in their town or village a thousand years ago. We can discover who their Lord was and, if we are very lucky, find they even have a Wikipedia page of their own!