Poques vegades incorporo notícies com aquesta al bloc. Però avui he trobat un article al “The Times” que m’ha fet rumiar.
Més d’una vegada hem comentat amb els amics si cal mantenir segons quins continguts i matèries al estudis dels nostres fills i filles.
L’article que avui us passo parla d’això. Cal estudiar la història d’antics reis i reines? O bé el que cal de veritat és estudiar la veritable reina del segle XXI: les noves tecnologies.
Al darrer paràgraf de l’article l’autor exposa la seva veritable opinió sobre el tema. Pel que fa a la meva:
Quan fa uns anys erem a Xina, vam veure sortir uns nens d’una escola de Beijing. Era dissabte, però això era una situació totalment quotidiana. Al cap d’uns dies vaig anar a veure personalment una escola. Crec que a pocs llocs del món conviuen la història i la modernitat com a aquest país asiàtic. I, … com ja saben els amics, jo sóc un admirador i un enamorat de Xina.
(per cert, la foto de capçalera és de Kangxi un dels emperadors xinesos que va ser realment respectat i admirat pel poble)
Més d’una vegada hem comentat amb els amics si cal mantenir segons quins continguts i matèries al estudis dels nostres fills i filles.
L’article que avui us passo parla d’això. Cal estudiar la història d’antics reis i reines? O bé el que cal de veritat és estudiar la veritable reina del segle XXI: les noves tecnologies.
Al darrer paràgraf de l’article l’autor exposa la seva veritable opinió sobre el tema. Pel que fa a la meva:
Quan fa uns anys erem a Xina, vam veure sortir uns nens d’una escola de Beijing. Era dissabte, però això era una situació totalment quotidiana. Al cap d’uns dies vaig anar a veure personalment una escola. Crec que a pocs llocs del món conviuen la història i la modernitat com a aquest país asiàtic. I, … com ja saben els amics, jo sóc un admirador i un enamorat de Xina.
(per cert, la foto de capçalera és de Kangxi un dels emperadors xinesos que va ser realment respectat i admirat pel poble)
History or Twitter? Wiki or Wars of the Roses? Over the last few weeks the options offered to generations of future school children studying history have sounded ridiculous: a choice between looking backwards or forwards.
But the truth of course, is never as exciting as all that. "It is important for me to set the record straight," Ed Balls said this week. There would be no “either/or choice between learning history and learning information technology”. But the Schools Secretary added that that it was “absurd that children are stuck in a dark age of technology when they learn history.” The sooner children learnt computer skills, the better.
I have no problem with this. Creative ways of learning are always appealing – as long as they help make more of a subject. The problem is that the subject itself needs to be sufficiently interesting.
My seven-year-old daughter, born of a mother who studied, and loves, history, informed me that she found the subject “boring.” I was shocked, and very disappointed. Shocked that is until I took an interest in the history she had so far learnt at school. I may be paraphrasing - and I am in no way criticising her teachers - but history for her has so far consisted of learning about furniture and toys in the Victorian era, and Florence Nightingale. Neither really grabbed her: she felt they had no relevance to her life, nor were they exciting enough to make a damn good story.
So, one evening while she was in her bath, then while she got ready for bed, and for around an hour after that, I told my daughter about the Tudors, from Henry VII to Elizabeth I and added in James I for good measure. She was enthralled, and I think the reason is simple – children love the idea of Kings and Queens.
Why care about whether technology is used in lessons, if the lessons themselves aren’t appealing? Yes, kids love the internet – mine has set up her own website, and already uses it as an infinite encyclopaedia – but they also love to hear about things exciting, about kings who cut off their wives heads, about a Spanish fleet which tried to invade, about the fluke of a prince dying young, so his younger brother (whether the future Henry VIII or Charles I) acceded to the throne.
Kings and Queens were history, they were the people who made things happen, and their stories resonate for centuries (why else would David Starkey now be regaling us with more about Henry VIII?) When I told my daughter that the next story we would cover was about a king who got his head chopped off, she was desperate to hear about it NOW. She didn’t say that about Florence Nightingale.
Sir Jim Rose is currently finalising his recommendations for changes to the primary school curriculum in England. Yes, technology is important, but history is vital, for learning, for understanding and for fantastic, almost unbelievable, (but true) stories.
