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âWe canât prepare kids for 1962â: History wars haunt curriculum debate
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Catherine Baron has taught history in Australian schools for almost 30 years.
When she began, history was generally taught with certainty about which events were worth recounting and why.
History has been at the heart of all reviews of the Australian curriculum.
These days, certainty has been replaced by âcontestabilityâ, and the president of the History Teachersâ Association of Australia says the state of affairs is a whole lot better.
âThere is more of an emphasis on skills, not just content,â Ms Baron says of the contemporary approach to history teaching in Australian secondary schools.
Australia s education minister has raised concerns proposed changes to the national curriculum focus too heavily on Indigenous history at the expense of western culture.
Under draft changes, students would learn how European colonisation was experienced by Indigenous people as an invasion, which critics said risked turning Australia into a nation of cretins .
Education Minister Alan Tudge said it was good to include more emphasis on Indigenous history but expressed concern the draft failed to strike the right balance.
Mr Tudge did acknowledge it is particularly pleasing to see mathematics standards lifted in the draft however he slammed a proposal to teach times tables at an older age