interpretations_and_history_teaching

29TEACHING HISTORY 121 © The Historical Association When I was in Year 9 (or the third year as it was then called)myhistoryteachermadeathrow-awayremarkwhich for some bizarre reason my unselective memory recalls. I’m sure no one else in my class at a... More

29TEACHING HISTORY 121 © The Historical Association When I was in Year 9 (or the third year as it was then called)myhistoryteachermadeathrow-awayremarkwhich for some bizarre reason my unselective memory recalls. I’m sure no one else in my class at a ‘bog-standard’ comprehensive during a haphazard and somewhat accidentaleducationtypicalofthemid1980sremembers it; probably the teacher doesn’t either. We were listening tohimexplainingtousabouthowHenryVIIIsoldofftoo quickly the land he gained from the dissolution of the monasteries. What stuck in my memory was his further point,thatthiswouldlatercreateproblemsforthecountry because it helped to create a new group of wealthy men who would seek greater power in Parliament. In part this sharing of my recollections, nearly twenty years later, is a pleasant reminder that some of the learning one engenders as a teacher is accidental and incidental. However my main purpose is to unpick what lies behind my recollections and to explore the issue Less