I often wondered why I was taught things like the Five Mile Act and stuff like that. We were certainly taught by rote, and there was no attempt made to suggest that the historical perspective was informative to avoiding similar stupidity now. If knowledge is not, at the very least, useful as a means of avoiding error then it seems to me to be a waste of time to teach it. It might be more to the point to get history teachers to tell everyone that the whole human race was reduced to about 30 people at one point in it’s history. And then explain that we are all, every last man jack of us, descended from that group. It is, after all, about the size of a class and even thick pupils might make something of it. But that’s the problem with historians, they have such a short perspective.

I still remember my excellent form teacher attempting to explain even the most basic non syllabus topics to her rough comprehensive class, with little response. “What business is London famous for?” Silence. Finally the Japanese exchange student put his hand up and said “Banking.”

Also, it may be true that we cannot escape our subjectivity, but that’s no reason not to try to interrogate the available evidence at all. I’m not suggesting you were saying that, but wrt to disputed historical “facts” and multiple interpretations of agreed-upon facts, a large part of what the study of history actually is, involves an awareness of precisely these two points. That’s one of the things that A-Level history gives you, whatever particular period you study. What’s important about learning history is not just the “factual” content, but also the discipline of analytical and critical thought. I think it would be a shame if we didn’t offer our school-children the option of that.

And I also would suggest that we actually need to know a little more than just how to use a web browser, specifically, how to critically evaluate what we read on the internet, in terms of its accuracy, reliability, authenticity etc. Maybe in your post that was taken as read, but I’m constantly amazed at the failure of first year university students to even consider such aspects of online sources that they use.

Great post, and I love the idea of the bowels of government.