To be the Clever Country, we need the appropriate history curriculum

The creative brain we have is about 150,000 years old. From the materials of the Earth, this brain has created another brain which can process masses of data which the creative brain cannot do. The teaming of the two brains has opened the door to future changes which will make those of the past look little more than a warm-up.

Each step leading to the Apollo 11 mission was no more important than the one before it. But, in the context of the history of life on this planet, the Apollo 8 mission was the more significant. That was the mission which first sent astronauts in orbit around our moon and then return back to Earth without a lunar landing. At some instant somewhere between the Earth and our moon, living organisms (including the microbes in the astronauts’ innards) came more under the gravitational influence of another planet than that upon which they had been evolving over the last 3.5 billion years.

Centuries from now the Cold War may even be forgotten, but what will never be forgotten is the Trinity Test. It occurred in the desert of New Mexico and the day was July 16, 1945. At precisely 5.29.45 am, we knew that man had the knowledge of the gods - as that was the moment that a form of energy was released which had never before appeared on any planet in the 4.5 billion year history our solar system. If there was any doubt in the average person’s mind that the top scientists now deserved to be the priesthood to replace the clergy of old, then this was the moment that doubt should have vanished.

“To equip students for the world in which they will live”

History will become compulsory through to year 10 from next year. This is the first honest effort made to get our future citizenry keen to work towards a better world - because this time the emphasis is observing how groups of people think. No more is the implication that we over here are better than they over there.

Nevertheless, what is being taught to the young plastic minds, which parents are forced by law to hand over to the state’s educational system, is annoyingly incomplete.

The national history curriculum (PDF 272KB) has been adopted in principle “to equip students for the world in which they will live”. For Unit 4: Australia in the Modern World (1901 - present) the draft curriculum gives the following overview:

This unit will provide an overview of the period along with depth studies which might include: Australia’s involvement in World War l, post-war migration to Australia, the civil rights movement in the United States or apartheid in South Africa compared with Indigenous rights in Australia, the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the influence of globalised American culture on Australia and elsewhere, decolonisation of the Asia-Pacific and the growth of environmentalism.

That is good, but it is basically only a record of how humans negotiate with other humans. Ignored are the impacts on our culture of nuclear energy, satellites, computers, transistors, aircraft, radio waves, microwaves, medical diagnostics, medical therapeutics, contraceptives, synthetic materials, GM crops etcetera.

It is wrong to assume that some history of technology will be picked up in the science classes. Dates of discoveries and names of discoverers will be given, but technology’s role in creating society itself is the job of the historians. (The new curriculum does allow for cross-curriculum studies, say from history to science, but only when time allows - and there are concerns about the size of the history curriculum as it is.)

You have a very faulty concept of history if you don’t realise that social history is no more than a sideshow to technological history. “Technology” is defined as the use of designed tools as distinct from just using tools (as do lower primates and some birds). Social history is completely determined by the underlying technology of the times. Here are two examples:

The technical advance which most changed humanity was the creation of a sharp-edged stone by splitting a larger stone. This “designed” tool allowed man-ape to skin an animal. Prior to this tool our ancestors had to tear into an animal with their teeth - as would an hyena. The removed skin could then be wrapped around the body to keep the heat in and the sun’s rays out. That tool enabled the crossing of the line between animal and man.

However, the full description of the human genome (the genetic lineup on the human DNA molecule, and which could never have been determined without the computer) will be of equal ranking. Man will be able to reshape himself both physically and mentally, cure all organic disease and stop the ageing process. This tool will enable the crossing of the line between natural man and unnatural man.

Conclusion

The type of history being taught is critically important to ours being a clever country. And yet we still have the wrong people designing the curriculum.