History for the comatose
Gregory Melleuish has written a paper for the upcoming history summit, which apparently aims to counter the perception that “Australian history is crap … ’cause nothing happened”‘.
What’s his answer?
[Melluish believes that] there is a tendency for Australian history lessons to “exclude or marginalise” many significant elements.
“These include economic development issues, middle-Australia, people of religious belief and the churches,” Associate Professor Melleuish says in the paper, which outlines what he believes students should be taught by the end of year 10.
“It is necessary that a place be made for these elements.”
Yes, that sounds like a brilliant way to counter the perception that Australian history is boring - I can just see the kiddies’ eyes lighting up when the teacher announces that today we’re talking about economic development issues. They’ll be beside themselves during the lessons on Middle Australia, let alone the compelling narrative about people of religious belief and the churches.
If history teachers spend a disproportionate amount of time on things like the Vietnam War and the Whitlam sacking, might that not be because they’re, y’know, a damn sight more interesting than droning on about Middle Australia? “Yes, and you wouldn’t believe it, every back yard had a HILLS HOIST! What’s that? Everyone still has one? Oh, right.”