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:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The history of all Magazines shows plainly that those which have attained celebrity were indebted for it to articles similar in natureto Berenice—although, I grant you, far superior in style and execution. I say similar in nature. You ask me in what does this nature consist? In the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)