The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning New. The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1933. HISTORY, PAST AND PRESENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 242, 13 October 1933, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning New. The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1933. HISTORY, PAST AND PRESENT.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that ncccls resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do

In ill - . Anstey's story "Vice Versa," the city mail, turned into a schoolboy once again, was annoyed by the unpractical nature of the Sums set in the school arithmetic. A similar protest has now been voiced by the principal of the Feilding Agricultural Iligh School against hypothetical questions about hypothetical stocks and shares, yielding "entirely hypothetical" rates of interestironical rates of interest in these days of interest cuts —while matters affecting the food production of New Zealand and the fluctuation of prices are neglected. lie thinks too much is made in our examinations of matters of ancient history and too little of the happenings of our own time. This is largely true. For many people history as learnt at school ends somewhere about the end of last century, and even that is Very often ft record of kings and queens and wars with little or no mention of the conditions of life among the common people.

The difficulty in teaching modern hissfory is perhaps to some extent the reason for its neglect. In ancient history we are dealing with generally accepted' facts. The facts about much modern history are still in dispute. The League of Nations Union in New Zealand recently objected to the manner in which the origins of the war were dealt with in schools; Other bodies would support the presentation to which objection was taken. Which view is to prevail if recent events arc made a subject for examination? If children were taught everything about the origins of the war, were taken far into history and given both sides of the argument in full, they would learn little else. The facts about the invasion of Manchuria are differently presented by Chinese and Japanese apologists. There is no such difficulty witli the histories of ancient Greece and Rome. These two ancient civilisations have run their full course from start to finish; they have been judged and heard the final verdict of time; because they are dead their history excites little prejudice and passion, and they resemble us sufficiently to admit of comparison, yot are sufficiently different to allow a contrast. Yet because modern history is difficult to teach, it does not follow it should not be taught, and this Feilding criticism is a call to educationists to do more to bring their teaching in line with daily life and the needs of the times.