History
On January 5, 1906, a group of history teachers and academics met in Central London to discuss the proposal from Miss M. A. Howard that they establish "an association to co-ordinate the efforts of all those working in England towards the improvement of history teaching in our schools." The aims Miss Howard identified for such an association were to be:
- A place for history teachers to get advice on syllabus, textbooks and method
- A means of keeping teachers in school in touch with the work of the universities
- A body to bring pressure to bear on educational authorities and examining bodies
- A body to persuade publishers to bring out cheap editions of good books and illustrations for use in schools
The meeting agreed to act upon Miss Howard’s proposal, and in closing the meeting Professor Pollard gave a wider remit for the new association: that history should be properly recognised by universities and that history should be properly taught in our schools.
This became the spark that formally founded the Historical Association on May 19, 1906. The first published aims were:
- The collection of information as to existing systems of historical teaching at home and abroad, by getting together printed books, pamphlets and other materials, and by correspondence
- The distribution of information amongst the members of the Association as to methods of teaching and aids to teaching (viz. maps, illustrations, text books, etc.)
- The encouragement of local centres for the discussion of questions relative to the study and teaching of history
- The representation on the needs and interests of the study of history and of the opinion of its teachers to governing bodies, government departments, and other authorities having control over education
- Co-operation for common objects with the English Association, the Geographical Association, the Modern Language Association and the Classical Association.
The Association’s aims have remained substantially unchanged and the aims stated in the Historical Association’s Charter closely echo these sentiments.
By 1917 the constitution was changed to incorporate non-professional interest in the subject. Admission was "open to all persons interested in the study and teaching of history".
The Association quickly grew in the post-war years and by the early 1950s had over 70 active branches and more than 8000 members.
The Association expressed concerns of lack of history educations to students.
Read more about this topic: Historical Association
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?”
—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“What we call National-Socialism is the poisonous perversion of ideas which have a long history in German intellectual life.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)