I find it interesting to read that many young British people’s knowledge of history is patchy manly due to the fact that only just over 30% of young students take history as a subject, with fewer still selecting it at the post 16 stage.
I took history as an option not because I was desperately keen on history per se but because the two year curriculum was only focused on the 20th Century, which I was interested in and because I felt more confident taking history than say chemistry or physics. As it was, my exam result surprised me as history was my best subject outside of art and English.
When the Berlin wall fell in in 1989 many commentators described it as ‘the end of history’ whilst an often quoted banner seen held at a demonstration by college lecturers many years prior to this event read ‘History teachers demand a continuous supply of history’. The supply of history didn’t dry up but seemingly the interest in it did.
I recently posted an entry along the same vein as this, but dealing with the teaching of U.S. History and how it can/should be used to explain current events.
http://teacherjay.wordpress.com/2007/07/19/history-lessons/