Like Unruly Children in a Citizenship Class

John Barrell

  • The Laughter of Triumph: William Hone and the Fight for a Free Press by Ben Wilson
    Faber, 455 pp, £16.99, April 2005, ISBN 0 571 22470 9

In a speech given early last month, Michael Howard shared his thoughts on education with the Welsh Conservative Party Conference in Cardiff. He was mainly concerned with the problem of discipline. ‘Guess which class children are most likely to misbehave in?’ The answer turned out to be Citizenship. And which subject would best teach children ‘respect for authority and the importance of discipline in school’? History. Not any old history, however, and certainly not the trendy kind that asks them to empathise with particular historical characters. Only by learning ‘what actually happened’, by studying ‘Britain’s past and her traditions’, would children learn to become ‘responsible citizens’.

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