Teaching history for a better future

by Anil Pagoda Arachchi

Many efforts have been made over the past ten to fifteen years by both erudite scholars and the general public alike to show that abandonment of teaching history as an important subject in the school curriculum has led to the socio economic ulcers of the present-day society.

Hopefully, now that history has been introduced as a core subject to the school system, it is opportune too us for look into some of the significant aspects of teaching history particularly in the Sri Lankan context.

Is the methodology used to teach history in our schools appropriate to achieve the goals? Have the new textbooks on history been designed to cater to the needs of the individuals and the society? Can history be taught to produce a creative generation? What will be the future of teaching history?

How history is taught

Though History has been introduced into the school curriculum, an examination of the content of the textbooks and the way it is taught in many schools enables us to comprehend certain lapses that could possibly hinder the expectations of the educational policy.

It is common knowledge that in many schools history still seems to be taught as a subject in which students are expected to retain particularly the dates related to the births and deaths of the kings in the past and a list of works done by the kings in their respective periods. In addition, materials on the history of the certain other countries have been included.

One undeniable fact of the history of any country is that it is organically embedded to its geographical locality. It is the efforts made by people on physical earth that makes much of the history of a land. Therefore, geographical reality and history can be considered as two sides of the same coin.

Mainly, it is this geographical locality that makes the history of a particular society quite distinctive from that of other areas or countries. It is true that certain physical features relevant to some of the historical events have been included in the textbooks.

However, have the syllabus designers and textbook writers tried to depict this inseparable and organic relationship in their works? Sadly, they have miserably ignored this important fact, which finally makes the students only rote learners of certain historical facts and features.

Exploration of history

In this writer's view, history textbooks must be written not just to make the students learn the content by heart but to explore and discover the historical facts and information creatively so that they can look forward to bringing in a better future with a new vision.

For example, the Aukana Buddha statue stands on a land above the Kalawewa and looks towards it. Here, the students can be made to explore as to why the statue keeps looking at the tank.

Their attention can be focused on to creatively think whether it looks so because it brings in a respect for the water, a rare resource in the dry zone, or it overlooks and bless all the agricultural and other activities of the people? What would have been the results if the statue had been built on a lower ground? It is known by everyone that the tanks in the dry zone were constructed based on the undulating landscape found there and the seasonal rains it gets.

When studying the tank system of the dry zone, the students can be guided to think by themselves what specific features of the landscape had influenced the construction of these respective tanks, and what are the other socio cultural and ecological factors that would have been taken into account when they were built.

Guiding the students on this path will definitely help them to be creative and learn history more enthusiastically.

One may very well bring in the argument that this geographical relationship can be studied in the other subjects such as Geography or Social Studies. But, the Subject Social Studies has been removed from the curriculum (This problem must be dealt with in a separate article) and Geography will be taught only as an optional subject.

Inter disciplinary approach

Since the history of a society is coloured with its geographical locality, fauna and flora, climatic conditions, behaviour of its people and their value system, it is an integral subject.

Therefore, the best approach to teach history is the inter disciplinary approach which can involve the students in constructing knowledge by themselves. It was once reported in the press that Prince Vijaya set his foot not on an area close to Mannar but on an area close to Hambantota.

If the students are made to seek the information of the movement of the sea between India and Sri Lanka, they can explore the likelihood of this idea. History is not static, and one historical fact which we believe today can be entirely made erroneous with new findings tomorrow. Thus, students have to be provided with opportunities to learn history with wider perspectives to be more innovative.

Is our thinking only a flashback when learning history in schools? Mostly, we become proud of ourselves having such a glorious advanced history. Nothing wrong with that. It is generally said that our thinking has a backward inclination.

Therefore, what must be done in the classroom in teaching history is to design the textbooks and the teaching methodology so that the students can be made to think into the future with a better outlook. Then only will the attempts taken by the government to include history as a subject bear the expected fruits.

The writer is a lecturer at Siyane National College of Education, Veyangoda.