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Topic: Australian History in the classroom − what students want
Guest: The Hon Julie Bishop MP, Minister for Education, Science and Training
Date: Wednesday, 13 June 2007, 10−11.30am
Venue: The Studio, National Museum of Australia
Students:
Sam Goldsmith, year 12 student from Masada College, St Ives NSW
Elliot Cameron, year 12 student from Fort Street High, Balmain NSW
Rosa Nolan, year 11 student from Sydney Girls' High School,
Croydon NSW
Video excerpts
> Australian history and ideology (MPEG4, 2.9MB)
> Difference between approaches (MPEG4, 2.3MB)
> Is history boring (MPEG4, 3.4MB)
> Student input to curriculum development (MPEG4, 3.6MB)
Student biographies:
My understanding of history began with the 'Horrible Histories' series of children's books, where I read extensively about the 'Cut-Throat Celts' and 'Vicious Vikings'. However upon developing an awareness of the significance of history beyond such intellectually stimulating topics as execution methods and a propensity to bathe, extensions of my learning such as Talkback Classroom are very appealing.
Having lived on three continents in four different cities in my short 17 years, I have been exposed to a variety of cultures, educational systems, and national histories. With my knowledge of the differences between in each from country to country, I am very excited to take on the challenge of assessing the nature of history teaching in Australia, and the various opinions and agendas behind it. As a keen history student myself, the debate is particularly engaging as I am directly affected by its progress. The opportunity to communicate with a related political figure, whose actions hold great significance to this topic, is certainly a highlight.
- Sam Goldsmith
Hi, I'm Elliot, in Year 12 at Fort Street High in Sydney, and I'm excited to be involved in this year's Talkback Classroom program. I've been drawn to the program because it provides an opportunity to actually get some answers to questions that you couldn't from your teachers.
In the case of the 'History Wars', history and politics go hand in hand; there is more at stake than just straight knowledge, because the way we teach history is going to affect how we think and act in the future. My dad has always said to me that modern history is so important because it shows us mistakes made in the past so that we don't repeat them. I have always been pretty curious about all sorts of knowledge, but the link from the past to the present makes me especially interested in history and politics since they play such a major role in how we think and act – politicians make the decisions that affect our lives.
I'm really looking forward to interviewing some of the decision-makers involved in the 'History Wars', hopefully giving them a couple of tricky ones to handle so they know young people are thinking about the debate. I'm also looking forward to conducting the investigation with the rest of the team. I've always liked to keep busy and active with school and district SRC, music, sport, debating, and Leichhardt Youth Council, but putting my skills and brain to the test in something as challenging as Talkback Classroom is a unique experience and something I feel lucky to be a part of.
- Elliot Cameron
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