Sir, Despite what the Minister for Education, Ms Bhreathnach said in her letter (May 4th), those taking part in the "debate" regarding the place of history in the junior cycle curriculum, are well aware that history, according to the White Paper, will continue to be available as an optional subject What we, and those who have addressed this issue have pointed out, is that the Minister removed history from the compulsory core.
This is the nub of the debate a the Minister must know very well my association made our position clear in a letter to her, as long ago as November 18th 1995.
Incidentally, the Minister seems to see the White Paper as a set of proposals. We were under the impression that the White Paper was a definitive statement of Government policy. We are also under the impression that it was the distilled wisdom of the prolonged discussion and debate that followed the issuing of the Green Paper. In the Green Paper, the NCCA's proposal to the Department of Education, to include history in the core curriculum was endorsed. During the debate that followed, we are not aware that this proposal was questioned in any way.
Much to the surprise of many, when the White Paper appeared, history had been excluded from the core. The Minister now tells us that she is again consulting with the NCCA, the body whose advice she rejected a short time ago hoping presumably that they might endorse a "short course" in history, an idea which she has recently mooted.
This association is totally opposed to such a proposal. A little knowledge of history can be a dangerous thing, serving only to feed what Roy Foster referred to as, "crude and untested assumptions.
The Minister seems to think that she can use the fact that history is not compulsory in all support of her decision. Surely, she must know, the reason that history was not made a compulsory subject in vocational schools, arose from the elitist attitudes that prevailed in the 1930s when these schools were set up. In those days, the secondary schools were seen as providing for one type of student, the vocational, schools for another.
Today, we consider all second level schools to be on an equal footing offering more or less the same curriculum. All students, regardless of ability and social background should receive the same basic education. History should be an integral part of this.
An examination of the curricula in the schools of even our most industrialised neighbours in Europe shows that they have not marginalised this essential element of their young people's education, because of an "overcrowded curriculum". Yours, etc Secretary, History Teachers' Association of Ireland, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.