Teaching Family History in Schools

[Dolgellau]

Enthused by recent family history programmes, such as Who do you think you are and Hel Achau on the TV my nine year old son’s teacher has given him a homework project to draw up a family tree over this weekend.

I believe that family history is a great way of teaching young people to have respect for themselves, for their family, their community and for their environment. So on the one hand I applaud Miss Jones for encouraging children in the pursuit of this hobby.

But I have some reservations

• My son can have a family tree that, literally, goes back to Adam and Eve (even further if you include God) by a click of a button from my computer. Other children might put in a damned sight more effort into the homework to get back to their grand parents. Their work will be overshadowed by the work that I have done over thirty years and to which my son has contributed nothing.
• It is much easier for the children of families who have their roots in this locality to do “original” research into their families than it would be for those who have moved into the area from other parts
• Despite the fact that I am descended from some of the great and the good (including many kings and princes) two of my great grandmothers were prostitutes and two of my four grandparents were “occupational hazards” from their mothers’ trade – I’m not sure that I want that sort of info given to my son’s teacher and I am worried that if the teacher knew about that part of the family background that she would treat and asses my son differently.

I have no problem with the elements of family history being taught by using, for instance, a local celebrity as a focus point, but I am uncertain about “personal” family history being pursued in schools.

What do other parents / grandparents (and even non-parents) think?

[Catswhiskers]

I think that childen shoud be aware of their roots. The days when extended families all lived close by have gone in most areas, gone in fact in my lifetinme. I don't expect for one minute that she intended they should come in with a CD with the full package from Family Tree maker or whatever.
 
Perhaps what she really wanted was to make them look at where they fitted into the scheme of things.  Don't they always tell us to ask relatives when we first start on family history? Drawing up a tree for 2 or 3 generations is a good way of starting to look at genetics. Who has blue eyes etc.

I am of the opinion that this sort of study may make children aware of the past and an understanding of it might make all the difference to the vandalism of cemetries war memorials and the like.

As a mother of 7 and grandmother of 10, I regularly amuse the younger ones with tales from my family history, and some are funny. Only when they are older can they appreciate how hard life was and the difficult choices people had to make.

Both my grandmothers died in their early forties from lead poisoning, a hazard of hand filecutting.   Most of their children died in infancy.  There's more to be learned from this than dressing up and being Victorian schoolchildren.  Some of my ancestors died in the workhouse,  some in the local asylum.  Some were in prison, some quite wealthy, some brave, some idle and shiftless.  I am not ashamed of anything they did or had to do, and I think you should take the same view.

Let thew lad draw up a tree from the people he knows. In a few years time he could be Rootschtting with the rest of us.

[suttontrust]

As a former history teacher, I did a bit of family history with some classes, but very warily.  I knew from my own experience (my father deserted the family when I was 6 and I knew nothing at all about him) that there were children for whom it would be impossible as well as painful.  Many children couldn't come up with any information about their fathers.  There could be real problems in some homes if they even asked.  I was glad to plant a seed of interest in some children and leave it at that.  It's better to teach real social history and thus give children the tools to find out about their own roots if they want to.  I took classes to the Local Studies Library to show them how to use censuses and old newspapers.  If I were teaching now I would be using the Mitchell and Kenyon films.  If teachers are using the current interest in family history, I hope they are sensitive to the problems they can cause.

[louisem]

As a history teacher too I would completely agree with suttontrust. There are many ways you can inspire children to find out more about social history, local history and their culture and heritage but to ask students to research their own family history is too personal and difficult for some. It's quite possible though to show some of the ways you would go about researching family history. When we used to study WW1 we would look at the local war memorials and then research some of the names on them using the local history library and the internet and I would explain how you would use the same methods to find out about your own family history.
Like suttontrust there were aspects of my experience which I dreaded coming up when I was in school so maybe that makes you more conscious of not causing your own students to experience those same problems.

[suey]

I'm with Suttontrust and Louisem on this one - Someone could be opening 'several cans of worms' with this one.

[teddybear1843]

Hi
I am Chair of Govs in the local Primary school and I am also Gov who is connected to History & Geography.  I often take the children on trips to the local village and Church where we discuss lots of things we see, among which are;
Local gravestone which details the life of a Crimean soldier buried there,
Sizes & shapes of fields (on our walk to the Church across the fields),
The houses,
The old Post Office, (now a house)
The old Pub, (now a house)
The old Blacksmith's, (now a house) Do you notice a pattern emerging?!
Farms
Cottages
Outside toilets now sheds
Roads & tracks
Sundials,
etc etc etc etc
I agree with the others, to use the children's families can be very intrusive so I use local people like the Crimean veteran, his mother emigrated to Australia in the 1830's etc etc

The opportunities for teaching most lessons are there on the doorstep it teachers want to use them

If any teachers want to contact me for ideas I will be very pleased to help.

Teddybear

[Amy K]

I too think it is very important to teach children about their roots. In fact, I did a family history project when I was in primary school. However, I agree with the notion that this is not a very good idea as it can be embarrasing and painful for some children. I think it is much better to do something similar to what teddybear suggested. I would use a local war memorial, for example our Boer War with 18 names, and give each child aperson to research. This would be against the background of lessons on the Boer War. You could teach them to use the 1881 census and the 1901 census and local newspapers etc.

[Hackstaple]

I think that many of the children could not possibly be interested as their roots are in countries far away. It could be offered as a Club after-hours. All schools have computers and internet access today. That way only those who had a real interest would attend. On the other hand the question would arise as to who would pay for all this. I remember Charles Clarke, when Minister of Education, making a speech about teaching chess at schools - the Government was 100% behind it but - a large BUT - they would offer no funding for it

[Shanko]

Interesting subject. I have actually published a booklet for teachers to use in the classrooms. The National History Society has taken quite a few copies of the booklet.

I think for children to learn about their roots is important. I did history at school and hated every minute of it, there was nothing interesting in the American Revolution. Like when would I ever of used that subject in my life time? Never.

If family history was in classrooms when I was at school that would of made it more interesting to learn on two levels: personal and social. By doing their family tree they then in the process learn about history in general as well as their own family history.

It will develop research skills and give children confidence in approaching big projects, with an eye for detail because of the importance of spelling.
It would also provide the opportunity for children and parents to interact and encourage communication

More and more schools over here are now starting to bring family history into the classroom. Yes there may be some children who feel uncomfortable if they haven't a father figure etc but they still have family roots but teachers could help them along the way

Before I did the booklet I did actually go to many schools and get the childrens comments on family history. Many of them loved the idea....with comments like “maybe I have a famous person in my family some where”.  One child came up to me and said "my Gt Gt grandmother was a housekeeper in a big house" and she was so proud of that chest stuck out it was so cute.

As for funding have fundraising events at the school specifically for family history, which would also get the families involved.

Shanko