Sir, - I read with dismay the Minister for Education's proposals to drop history as a core subject at Junior Cert level (April 12th). Like the delegates at the ASTI conference, I believe such a decision would deprive students of their heritage, but I also believe it would remove from them the opportunity to learn about the heritage and culture of others. History, properly taught, need not "breed republicans" or unionists, or any other political offspring.
History, both global and domestic, should be taught from an early age and certainly at second level. I got the impression from your report of the conference that delegates only feared the consequences of dropping Irish history from the compulsory curriculum but history, even to Irish students, should be about more than Ireland. It is a unique chance, which most will never again have, to study the global past and perhaps to learn from the past for the future.
What could be more important than learning the truth about the past - whether it be the Holocaust or the devastating legacy of the nuclear bomb dropped on Japan, the long term divisiveness caused by the Civil War in Ireland, or the social, political and religious consequences of the failures of Goldenbridge? They all have deep meaning about the way we conduct our lives today - and certainly the way in which the children will do so tomorrow.
Environmental, social science and human rights studies and the study of history need not and should not be mutually exclusive in education in Ireland, or anywhere else. - Yours etc
Deans Grange House, Blackrock,
Co Dublin.