Book Review

HOW HORRIBLE HAS HISTORY TO BE?

By Stephen Wilson 

A look at the Horrible History Series.{ published by scholastic,London, from 1993}

 

 

            Henry Ford said 'History was bunk', Napoleon stated 'History was a fable told by others', and the English actor who is the author behind the 'Horrible History' series of books claims that history, as taught at schools, 'gets horribly boring'. For instance, in the introduction to one of the earliest books 'Awesome Egyptians, written in 1993, he writes: 'History is horrible! Horrible dates to remember, horrible kings fighting

horrible battles against horrible people. Sometimes it gets horribly boring!

            Sometimes it can be horribly confusing! But this book is about really horrible history.

            The sort of thing that teachers never tell you! Teachers don't always tell you the whole truth! Honestly!

 

            Teachers think you're too young to learn about gruesome things ... like the way Egyptians took the brains out of their mummies! So they don't tell you... then you leave school, and you may never ever learn this vital information.

            And sometimes teachers don't tell you things because they don't know the facts themselves ... by the time you 're finished you will be able to teach your teacher'.

            The tirade goes on and on. In a word, teachers are hopeless.

 

            For anyone who does not know, the Horrible History series represents an illustrated series of books, with fascinating facts, narrated in an amusing and arresting way

which was specifically aimed at children from 8 to 11, but appeals also to adults who also get absorbed in them. The books have proved to be bestsellers selling in as as many as 40 countries with at least 25 million being sold by 2012. They have even made a television series based on the books. Some of the books in the series are 'Awesome Egyptians', 'Smashing Saxons', and 'Rotten Romans' to name but a few.

            Part of the appeal of this series lies in the ability of the author to dramatize history by selectively choosing the most interesting facts, a dark sense of humor, skillful

storytelling and superb illustrated cartoons to accompany the facts. The books claim to tell you the facts which school teachers are alleged to conceal from their school students. There's an anti-school and anti-teacher tone which resonates with many past as well as present pupils. Those books are even available in Moscow. They also, ironically appeal to some teachers. Maria Koroleva, a teacher of English and Gaelic, told me, "We ought to use those books in the classroom. They are so interesting and people would love them here". Svetlana Wilson, who was teaching English told me, "I used the book 'Awesome Egyptians' to teach English to children. They liked the book. While Polina was interesting in the chapter of cosmetics, my pupil Kirill liked the chapter on the Mummies. It is full of all kinds of interesting facts".  

 

            The author himself Terry Deary is at pains to explain he is not a historian. He claims, 'I don't want to write history, I am not a historian. I want to change the World, attack the elite, overturning the hierarchy, Look at my stories and you'll notice that the villains are always those in power'. Wait a minute. Are teachers part of an elite?

            Are they part of the establishment? A union representative told me he felt that in Russia teachers are treated as slaves who have no rights. They are in many ways

becoming more powerless. Which raises the question how in touch is this author with the real world of teaching? We learn at the back of those books that Terry Deary was born in 1946 and that, 'At school he was a horrible child only interested in playing football and giving teachers a hard time. His history lessons were so boring and so badly taught, that he learned to loathe the subject. Horrible Histories is his revenge'.

            It sounded like the bullied becoming the bully through  anecdotes about dull teachers.

            It seems as if this pupil is still fighting old battles against teachers. But even some professional historians can do this. Niall Ferguson's 'The Pity of War', was a rebuke to

former teachers of English literature who made him learn by heart 'Dulce et Decorum est' by Wilfred Owen. Ferguson claimed that some soldiers who served at the front got some enjoyment from the war, so Wilfred Owen got it partly wrong! Yet the work is still a great read!

 

            In a way, the Horrible History series is a continuation of teacher bashing by other means. The British government and the media echo the claims of Deary that teachers can't teach well, are inept and too powerful. They claim teachers are boring, dull and don't know their subject well. Compared to other professions, teachers have an easy job because they enjoy free Summer months and finish their job at 3 p.m. The fact that teachers are exhausted from overwork, supervising tests and doing a lot of paperwork never occurs to those critics. Terry Deary was taught in a school during the 1950's. His view of teachers is based on the limited experience of growing up in a school over 60 years ago. I mean are history teachers all boring? I adored listening to my primary school teachers narrate brilliantly about how the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. The teacher used her body to superbly describe this and we had great discussions with another teacher on who was to blame for the English Civil War. I

recall how a history teacher provoked us into thinking by questioning the official version of how President Kennedy was assassinated. Our history lessons at school were very interesting. There was no great conspiracy to conceal facts. But who are the bullied and bullies: teachers or pupils? Life is gray. It is often a bit of both.

 

            Let me tell you one story I can never forget. My history teacher at secondary school was once late for the classroom. The class of 12-year-old kids hung over the banister of a staircase waiting for the teacher. As the teacher was walking up the stairs some pupil spat on his head. The saliva hit him. When he arrived in the classroom he was

furious. He shouted, "I want to know who spat on me. Unless this pupil owns up I will belt every pupil in this classroom." The teacher turned to me and asked, "Stephen, could you tell me who did it ?" I remained silent. An eerie silence echoed through the classroom. Then finally the boy who did this owned up and said, "I did this". The teacher took out his belt and hit him very hard on the hands. His hands were very

painful. But this history teacher was no monster. He could joke with students and I even played a war game with him at the school club. You can hardly blame this teacher for being angry after being spat on. I tell this story just to demonstrate how the relationship between teacher and pupil is not black or white where teachers are all servants of the state intent on brainwashing or oppressing pupils.

 

            The teaching of history has changed a lot since Deary's time. At present school students learn about Tudor times, Stalin, Hitler and the Second World War. They can grow up knowing a lot about the repression in Russia, but little about the injustice of the British Empire. The reason that people are taught about this bloody period of history is to make the lessons more interesting and capture the attention of children.

            This is similar to what Deary set out to do and some do reveal gruesome facts.

            Terry Deary was shocked to learn his books had become textbooks in some school classrooms. That is not what he intended. This is a case where school teachers are

teaching pupils what their own government don't want them to hear: the exploitation of the working class as well as the legacy of how the British Empire was responsible for so much famine in India and Ireland. How ironic! The teachers might be taking their revenge on Deary rather than vice versa.

 

            The British historian Michael Wood claims that history is one of the most popular pastimes in Britain. He states that there is a huge appetite for learning history in Britain. This is indicated by many museum visits, the attendance at his lectures where maybe 300 to 500 will come to attend. Just look at the popularity of so many reenactment societies in Britain. And this popularity is not confined to Britain, but

extends to Russia and China. In China, people are attempting to rediscover their own history as well as old rituals which were formally repressed during the Cultural Revolution when the Red Guards attempted to destroy all old artifacts. The aim

was to destroy all memories of past customs and ways. But the people secretly hid some of their own past possessions and relics before the Red Guard visited their homes. They concealed them in roofs, or buried them in back gardens. Without a sense of history or the memory of our past we become cut off from our roots. We become disorientated and dislocated from our surroundings. We feel like aliens.

            But in this rediscovery of history school teachers are not the enemy, but deserve dialogue. Many adore their subject and make a great effort to interest students.

            They can play a significant part in reawakening interest in our history. They are not all horrible. Boring or not, they are still human!