Sir, - "History's future as a subject under threat" was the headline to a piece by your Education Correspondent, Andy Pollak (The Irish Times, June 23rd). Unexpected Leaving Cert questions are reported to have been so discouraging that history teachers may expect a further decline in their student numbers. To use a well-worn phrase, they ain't seen nuthin' yet.
For many years now I have been predicting that decline as two forces reinforced each other. One is the enormous expansion in the amount to be read. The other is the growth of poor, slow reading among TV-reared youngsters. As VDU reading spreads, page reading is set to become poorer and slower still, and recall even more defective. History study is most demanding of the ability to read and recall well and quickly as the basis for creative thinking in response to questions. That basis is now so weak, and so set to weaken further with the use of computers in homes and schools from primary years onwards, that history study will be given an even wider berth.
Two things may be done about this. One is, instead of dumbing down exam questions and marking to paper over what is happening, dumbing down may legitimately take the form of reducing by up to 50 per cent or more the amount to be studied. That reduction may be achieved by both exclusion and compression, and may be effected immediately by way of a Department of Education and Science decree. Secondly, parents may take countervailing measures to ensure that page-reading speed and recall do not suffer alongside VDU reading. To help those already suffering due to past VDU use, even one day of intensive tuition may do much to make poor, slow readers into good, fast readers. The Transition Year period may be used for that purpose, to set youngsters up to cope readily with the reduced history assignment. Because of what is known now about the condition, even dyslexic readers may be good, fast readers in time for Leaving Cert study of history and of other subjects. - Yours, etc.,
Joseph F. Foyle, Director, Read Ireland, Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.