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This elimination of our national history in many of our schools is nothing short of a tragedy

My education began in a dramatic story. "In a hole deep enough in the corner of Medlock and surrounded on all sides by tall factories and high embankments, covered with buildings, there are two groups of about 200 homes in the area of ??population around 4,000 people, Most of the Irish. The cottages are old, dirty and the smallest species, the streets uneven, fallen into ruts and drainage or in part without the floor, the masses of garbage, offal and sickening filth lie in permanent ponds in all directions ... "

It was the story of Friedrich Engels, 1840 in Manchester, as shown in

The situation of the working class in England

. He was the inspiration that my text history teacher, Mr. Mackintosh, decided it would be interesting for a class of 11-year study. So, week after week, we travel through the mills, hospitals and boards of urbanization in England. The accounts of the effluent, bubbly, a sky full of smog and crowded housing

We typhus mounted Irish immigrants and factory owners Philistine. And it was wonderful: a seductive blend of blood and dirt with a visceral sense of the beyond foreign, unknowable that we all wanted to get their hands

Unfortunately, the results of the examination last week showed very few students are taught history like me. But more alarming, the figures showed that fewer taking history GCSE, but the study of the past has become the preserve of the private sector. Our national history is in the process of privatization, with 48% of independent students in the field, compared to 30% of participants in public schools. And schools of the Academy, so admired by government ministers are among the worst offenders.

This elimination of the past is nothing short of a national tragedy. We can repeat the arguments about the offers "competency" in history - the ability to prioritize information, refer to an argument, the sources of criticism. However, this utility does not do justice. The story is a lot of things: material culture of the past, communities have lost consciousness, tracing the rise and fall of civilizations

However, history also provides us with a collective memory, gives us a sense of connection to place, time and community. And that sensitivity is lost. As Eric Hobsbawm put it:. "The destruction of the past, or rather of the social mechanisms that link contemporary experience to that of previous generations, is one of the most characteristic and mysterious end of the 20 most young women in the late century, turned into a kind of permanent show no organic relationship with the public last time we live "

Naively, government ministers that the problem lies simply with the curriculum. In fact, the Education Secretary Michael Gove has launched a review of the history program, blaming political correctness for a failure to teach "one of the most inspiring stories to know - the history of the United Kingdom "

This is important because what we lack. "The bigotry of low expectations", an assumption that communities historically low tuition should not be questioned, this means that young people are denied the legacy of its history, the understanding of their country and society. This is the mentality that cuts the history of the English Civil War, the Industrial Revolution and the British Empire.