I don't remember being taught much history at school other than American history, though to be honest I hated history anyway. I know that will kill Anna to hear but it bored me, and I doubt any more European history would have changed my view on this.

I think wars are the most important historic events to remember, not just the victims and the war themselves but how we got to a point of war. I don't think any war we've been in since WWII has been anything to be proud of, I mean no war is something to be proud of but at least WWII we were forced our hand to defend ourselves.

So far I can't say there has been anything that need be remembered and in the future I think history should be taught only in small doses. We don't need to know the history of a load of crap, it has never done us any good in real life so why bore us to death with it at school?

You two make me want to cry! History is so much more then what you two make it out to be!

My favorite lesson at school was medicine through time, it was such a fun lesson learning how surgery and the knowledge of the bodies evolved through time. It was pretty bloody and a lot of fun. Nice to have a laugh at some of the more *ahem* weird ways in dealing with things.

Periods of time that I loved were the Romans/Egyptians/Greeks and World War II and the Rise and Fall of Hitler. Specially WWII the way my history teacher taught it.

We only learnt any American history once in year 7 (first year of secondary school) it was three weeks on cowboys and Indians, that was the only time other then black civil rights in my GCSE year.

I do think there is a lot of history that we were taught time and time again that could probably be cut out. I understand why WWII was taught every year but kings and queens, Henry VIII... Even the black civil rights I don't think we need in history (we also did it EVERY YEAR in P4L/Citizenship which made more sense then in history). I mean there were things in A-Level history that I wondered why we never bothered with like the French Revolution. History shouldn't be ditched though just opened a little more.

I personally don't think I've lived through any historic moments, or at least any I'll remember. I'd say 9/11 but there isn't much there for a history lesson again that is more P4L then history. It was an event that shocked the world yes but there isn't much to learn about. I guess it all depends what happens later in life to really figure out what will be historic, I guess our era will be taught. The 90s and 00s....

It isn't really so much about any event being more important then any other but more to do with how effective it'll be on the people being taught. Medicine through time is interesting and if taught at a younger age might actually make more people wonder about becoming Doctors, the rise and fall of Hitler is important so people learn how a man with an idea can end up causing a lot of pain and suffering, one event that lead to a man hunt that lasted a decade... Well there isn't much there.

I can't say much about America/Europe divide but what I did get the idea of once whilst talking to a teenager from the states is that a lot of our shared history is very America-biased in the states. He loved telling me that if it wasn't for Pearl Harbor we'd all be dead yadda yadda like the war STARTED at Pearl Harbor and ended because of the Americans. He didn't know anything about Hitler other then he was evil and next to nothing about anything before Pearl Harbor and wouldn't listen when I told him he was wrong. But that was one person.

Ohh and a lot of American's I know don't care that Churchill was Prime Minister they were taught he was a great American and that is all they care about .

History isn't all about dates and politics, Anna is right that there are some really interesting parts of history that are overlooked in school to focus more on "our" history. I totally agree that maybe teaching about kings and queens and such like should be primary school only, the only change to that story we'll ever get is current affairs so not really history material yet.

I mean even with politics attached Roman history is quite amazing really and a lot of classic history needs to be taught from stories of the time so I don't know how you could call it boring.

Though Blackadder is one of the many perks of history I grant you that

Blackadder does rule but I disagree. Some history is burdened at school with dates and reforms and stuff like that but when you lose that it is ALL interesting. I mean I am just like you I don't really remember times and dates and the name of this reform or that but when you peel it back the reasons for these dates being important and the stories behind the political stuff is so full of real life drama its unbelievable.

I mean Amanda is right if you want to learn about the Greeks then you learn about their habits and ways of life out of the Odyssey and Illiad! Mythology has a basis in truth of the people they are made by.

Step away from the fussy stuff and history is about forming opinions on things, at least that was what we were always told! You can't have a wrong opinion on something (hence why I was always a weird one when talking about Hitler ) .

I'd actually agree with that, bring some life into the history room it'll do more good then bad! The thing about history is that there is so bloody much of it! We never did anything like the ice age, the dark ages etc at my schools it was always the same few things recycled (or recycled from other lessons) so maybe bringing more history to the classrooms is what is needed!

Just that he is the product of his time, what happened in Germany, the people around him leading up to him taking power... I don't believe he was as evil as people say, he was a bad person and did evil deeds but compared to some real evil people he was just another ******* in a big line of bastards that get into power and do evil things. Some of the things he "did" I don't even think he knew about. Personally I don't sit there and just dismiss him as evil I actually bother to look and think there is a lesson there that needs to be learnt and I think it is a good lesson to learn because at the moment there is so much hate for this group or that group and one leader promising change could lead to another evil leader rising just like Hitler did. People won't want half of what comes with it but it would happen. I think dismissing him as evil doesn't teach you anything.

I will fully agree with that! You need the right teacher and I think we were on the crusp of younger teachers who actually taught History with a passion that was understandable! I mean my teacher through most of school was brilliant, quirky and really loved the subject. She never let anyone get away with just claiming someone was evil or good you had to actually prove it and she tended to rip through the characters of historic characters and show their real colors. History should only be partly to do with the names of things that happened and when they happened, the heart of history is the stories and the deeds done.

I mean even things like the Cold War can be really interesting with the right teacher. Our source material for our Russian history classes was bloody boring and half the time it was a struggle to read a page or two what with all the names of things being in Russian, but our teacher managed to make us all interested in it.

I guess it all depends on what the schools want to teach, our school more then anything ended up teaching us to form our opinion on the events and people which meant actually going into detail the things they did and didn't do and the deeds and events. Yes we got taught the years and names but when it came to course work it was more "what do you feel about these things and the people involved" and the course work made up most of our marks!

Classical History (or Civilizations as it is actually called) was basically learning about the Greeks from "The Odyssey" and the Cicero. The Greek paper we had to do we got to take our copies of "The Odyssey" in with us all annotated and it had bugger all to do with times and dates but what the story told us of the people of the time. We basically spent a year reading the original Epic!

I guess you just don't think about it do ya? I mean if you choose to read up on something it ain't like you have to do it and F1 is a bit different from civil wars and people writing laws and shit like that.

History teachers take themselves too seriously and to be honest learning the past of one thing that you are interesting in isn't the same as that crap anyway.