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