David Dimbleby says TV fills in for history lessons

See here BBC News Tuesday, 9 March 2010

' History programmes on television are filling in the gaps in children's knowledge of the subject, says veteran BBC presenter David Dimbleby.

In an interview in the Radio Times he said the treatment of history in the curriculum had been "less impressive". Dimbleby said the popularity of TV history documentaries showed people had a genuine interest in the cultural heritage of the country.

Dimbleby is currently presenting the Seven Ages of Britain on BBC One.

In a question and answer interview in the Radio Times, the broadcaster said: "The success of Seven Ages and and other programmes - by Andrew Marr, Simon Schama and David Starkey - suggests to me that there is a great and perhaps growing interest in our history.
"Maybe we are filling in the gaps left by the less impressive treatment of history in the school curriculum."
Dimbleby also defended the presentation of history programming by non-academics.
"There is a place for the specialist, of course, but there is a place too for the broadcaster with a general layman's curiosity and interest," he said.
"Neither should exclude the other."... '

I don't know what history is taught in schools these days, but what I've seen of the accompanying key stage resources it seems to be pretty limited. We record masses of tv documentaries, primarily - but not exculsively - historical ones. And for the most part they are informative and interesting. Not all are enjoyed by the kids, but the ones that they do enjoy really give them a taste for all things historical.

Documentaries we've been watching recently :
'Seven Ages of Britain' (BBC)
'Industrial Revelations' (Quest),
oh and I've just recorded the start of the new space documentary series: 'Wonders of the solar system' which also looks fab.
And we are revisiting the series 'The 1900s House' and 'The 1940s House', thanks to the loan of DVDs from a friend (thank you !).