What we teach our children in their history lessons at school gives them a sense of who they are and where they have come from.
The knowledge content selected for study must help them to understand what has happened in the past and how it has shaped their culture, wider society and the world they are growing up in.
The skills taught through a study of the past enable critical thought and judgement, based on a weighing up of evidence and an understanding of perspective.
The aim of any good history curriculum must be to learn from the past in order to develop a better understanding of humanity at its best, as well as at its worst.
Last week, the long-awaited report by the Commission of Race and Ethnic Disparities was published.
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We expected it to form some sort of reckoning with the past, to uncover the worst and provide an analysis of the data that will force our institutions and organisations to change.
As an educationalist, I expected it to really challenge our thinking and practices in schools as well as our curriculum planning.
Instead, it was…
