More on the failure of British schools to teach history:

Nearly half of 18-24-year-olds (45 per cent) do not know that Nelson led the British to victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, with more than one in six (15 per cent) believing Cromwell was responsible, according to a survey commissioned by the national schools singing programme Sing Up.

More than one in four thought the Battle of Trafalgar was part of the English Civil War, while 34 per cent were unaware that Charles Darwin was English, with one in seven (14%) believing he was American.

This is from a Telegraph article today.

I was even more appalled, though, when I asked a 16 year old I know who led the British at Trafalgar, where was Darwin from and who built Hadrian's Wall? This is a 16 year old girl at a top private school who, unlike many of her colleagues, is taking a GCSE in history. She knows a remarkable amount about Hitler's foreign policy because that is on the national curriculum.

She got the Darwin question right. Who led at Trafalgar? Wellington, she suggested. I suppose at least he was from the right war. Who built Hadrian's Wall? Hadrian, obviously. OK. But where was he from? England.

Dear oh dear. I then, as a bonus question, asked who the Goths are or were. They were people who wore a lot of black. Did she know of any Goths who existed before the last 100 years? Well they built funny buildings that were called Gothic. Anything else? No.

Those parents who assume that their children know about Trafalgar and so on should try giving them a little test. It might provide a nasty surprise.

Postscript: When told that Hadrian was not English, the 16-year-old asked "Where did he come from? " Told that he was a Roman emperoror she exclaimed, "What were they doing over here?"

It makes you weep.

Further postscript: the girl doing history at GCSE is studying four subjects - international relations between the first and second world wars, Germany between the same wars, the Russian revolution and the development of warfare in the 20th century. These are all potentially interesting subjects but please note the omission: direct study of the history of Britain.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Education

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