CURRICULUM
T he past is a rich resource and historians are charged with its protection. Historians, therefore, have a duty to hold leaders to account when they attempt to abuse, manipulate and distort the past to vindicate present policy. Historians strip back popular myths and fallacies about supposedly ‘glorious’ events and ‘great’ men to place both actions and actors under intense scrutiny (though no historian could dilute the greatness of Mr Barrett Green. In what other subject does a teacher possess a Wallace and Gromit tie? Need I say more?). Even the dead are not safe from prosecution in the court of history: Lord Acton appointed the historian a ‘hanging judge’. Perhaps more importantly, historians work to make the past, that infinitely vast and powerful resource, intelligible to us HISTORY The Study Of Boring Dead People Finnian Robinson THE ARTS Getting An A-Level In Free Periods Dan Norton-Smith T heatre is an expression of civilisation’ (Timberlake Wertenbaker), ‘but Theatre Studies is an expression of the lazy minority’ (Dan Norton-Smith). Who doesn’t love doing nothing? This is precisely the thought of any Creative student upon selecting their A-level choices, be that Art, Music or Drama. Indeed, as our peers tell us, we will have little or no career prospects and to this we say one thing – ‘Would you like to eat in or take away?’ All joking aside, ‘the arts define our culture… identity and national conversation’ (Sir Peter Bazalgette), and with UK creative industries bringing in £8million per hour, it seems frankly idiotic to ignore or disregard the Arts, especially in such an age of change and contradiction. By studying the Arts, one allows oneself to challenge, question and thrive in an ever-changing modern world. Besides, who doesn’t love mucking around on a keyboard/ with paint/ in the costume store?
today. You cannot know where you are going unless you know where you have come from. And no, geographers – once again, that is not an invitation to colour in a map. We face the same problems today as our predecessors did, merely in different contexts. In this sense, history, being both progressive and cyclical, is essential to the navigation of the present. Furthermore, history creates individual, communal and national identity; thus, study of the past is a process of revelation in the present. Finally, quite simply, history is fun. Who dares deny that Disraeli had some brilliant banter – as, for example, on this distinction between types of tragedy: ‘If Gladstone fell into the Thames, that would be a misfortune; if someone were to pull him out again, that would be a calamity’.
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By studying the Arts, one allows oneself to challenge, question and thrive in an ever-changing modern world
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