Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.rock
Titolo: (OT) per Px e altri interessati, spero tutti

I. Assembly debate on 22 January 1996 (1st Sitting) (see Doc. 7446, report
of the Committee on Culture and Education, rapporteur: Mr de Puig).
Text adopted by the Assembly on 22 January 1996 (1st Sitting).
PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY
OF THE
COUNCIL OF EUROPE
1996 ORDINARY SESSION
RECOMMENDATION 1283 (1996)'
on history and the learning of history in Europe
1. People have a right to their past, just as they have a right to disown
it. History is one of several ways of retrieving this past and creating a
cultural identity. It is also a gateway to the experiences and richness of
the past and of other cultures. It is a discipline concerned with the
development of a critical approach to information and of controlled
imagination.
2.     History also has a key political role to play in today's Europe. It
can contribute to greater understanding, tolerance and confidence between
individuals and between the peoples of Europe - or it can become a force for
division, violence and intolerance
3. Historical awareness is an important civic skill. Without it the
individual is more vulnerable to political and other manipulation.
4. For most young people, history begins in school. This should not simply
be the learning by heart of haphazard historical facts; it should be an
initiation into how historical knowledge is arrived at, a matter of
developing the critical mind and the development of a democratic, tolerant
and responsible civic attitude.
5. Schools are not the sole source of historical information and opinion.
Other sources include the mass media, films, literature and tourism.
Influence is also exercised by the family, peer groups, local and national
communities, and by religious and political circles.
6. The new communication technologies (CD-I, CD-ROM, Internet, virtual
reality, etc.) are gradually extending the range and impact of historical
subjects.
7. A distinction may be made between several forms of history: tradition,
memories and analytical history. Facts are selected on the basis of
different criteria in each. And these various forms of history play
different roles.
8. Politicians have their own interpretations of history, and some are
tempted to manipulate it. Virtually all political systems have used history
for their own ends and have imposed both their version of historical facts
and their definition of the good and bad figures of history.
9. Even if their constant aim may be to get as close to objectivity as
possible, historians are also well aware of the essential subjectivity of
history and of the various ways in which it can be reconstructed and
interpreted.
10. Citizens have a right to learn history that has not been manipulated.
The state should uphold this right and encourage an appropriate scientific
approach, without religious or political bias, in all that is taught.
11. Teachers and research workers should be in close contact to assure the
continued updating and renewal of the content of history teaching. It is
important that history keep pace with the present.
12. There should also be transparency between those working in all areas of
history, whether in the school classroom, television studio or university
library.
13. Particular attention should be given to the problems in central and
eastern Europe which has suffered from the manipulation of history up to
recent times and continues in certain cases to be subject to political
censorship.
14. The Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers encourage the
teaching of history in Europe with regard to the following proposals:
i. historical awareness should be an essential pan of the education of all
young people. The teaching of history should enable pupils to acquire
critical thinking skills to analyse and interpret information effectively
and responsibly, to recognise the complexity of issues and to appreciate
cultural diversity. Stereotypes should be identified and any other
distortions based on national, racial, religious or other prejudice;
ii. the subject matter of history teaching should be very open. It should in
clude all aspects of societies (social and cultural history as well as
political). The role of women should be given proper recognition.
Local and national (but not nationalist) history should be taught as well as
the history of minorities. Controversial, sensitive and tragic events should
be balanced by positive mutual influences;
iii. the history of the whole of Europe, that of the main political and
economic events, and the philosophical and cultural movements which have
formed the European identity must be included In syllabuses;
iv. schools should recognise the different ways in which the same subjects
are handled in different countries, and this could be developed as a basis
for interschool exchanges;
v. support should be given to the Georg Eckert Institute for International
Textbook Research, and Ministries of Education and educational publishers in
member states should be asked to ensure that the institute's collection of
textbooks be kept up-to-date;
vi. the different forms of history learning (textbook study, television,
project work, museum visits, etc.) should be combined, without exclusive
preference to any of them. New information technologies should be fully
integrated. Proper educational (and academic) standards must be ensured for
the material used;
vii. greater interaction should be fostered between school and out-of-school
influences on young people's appreciation of history, for example by museums
(and in particular history museums), cultural routes and tourism in general;
viii. innovatory approaches should be encouraged, as well as continued
in-service training, especially with regard to new technologies. An
interactive network of history teachers should be encouraged. History should
be a priority subject for European teachers' courses organised within the
framework of the Council for Cultural Co-operation in-service training
programme for teachers;
ix. co-operation should be encouraged between teachers and historians, for
example by means of the Education Committee of the Council for Cultural
Co-operation's new project on learning and about teaching the history of
Europe in the 20th century;
x. government support should be given to the setting up of independent
national associations
of history teachers. Their active involvement in the
European history teachers' association Euroclio should be encouraged;
xi. a code of practice for history teaching should be drawn up in
collaboration with history teachers, as well as a European charter to
protect them from political manipulation.
15. The Assembly supports freedom of academic research but would also expect
professional responsibility as in the parallel field of broadcasting. The
Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
i. ask governments to assure continued financial support for historical
research and the work of multilateral and bilateral commissions on
contemporary history;
ii. promote co-operation between historians so as to help encourage the
development of more open and more tolerant attitudes in Europe by taking
account of different experiences and opinions;
ii. ensure that the right of historians to freedom of expression is
protected.
16. European collaboration should be encouraged in the field of history. The
Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
i. study the basic elements of the different histories of the peoples of
Europe which, when accepted by everyone, could be included in ail European
history textbooks;
ii. consider the possibility of establishing in member states an on-line
library of history;
iii. encourage member states to establish national history museums on the
lines of the German "House of History" in Bonn;
iv. promote multilateral and bilateral projects on history and history
teaching and in particular regional projects between neighbouring countries.

Al-Farid ha scritto:
For most young people, history begins in school. This should not simply
be the learning by heart of haphazard historical facts; it should be an
initiation into how historical knowledge is arrived at, a matter of
developing the critical mind and the development of a democratic, tolerant
and responsible civic attitude.
___
Ecco, purtroppo questo mi pare nelle scuole si faccia poco, e anzi 
ancora molti confondono la storia con lo snocciolamento di date. Pensa 
te che ho preso un 30 in Storia Contemporanea (Silvio Lanaro) senza 
citare all'esame manco una data fosse una :) Quanto quotato sopra 
comunque è l'essenza dell'insegnamento della storia, e l'essenza 
dell'insegnamento di ogni disciplina umanistica.
Comunque, caro Farid, quando mi scaglio provocatoriamente contro lo 
storicismo è per l'ansia generalizzata che si percepisce in giro quando 
si ascolta la rincorsa mediatica al "record storico", al "fatto 
storico", all' "occasione storica"; sembra ci sia una gran voglia di 
vivere nell'eccezionalità come bisogno di non perdersi nella nullità 
degli eventi, nel piattume quotidiano. E' come ci fosse il bisogno di 
cercare la propria identità (e che sia un'identità di spessore, non 
misera) nel riflesso di un accadimento importante; insomma, forse c'è 
della mania di protagonismo, l'ansia da bisogno "d'esserci"; se permane 
un accadimento nella storia, se diventa appunto "storico", allora 
anch'io, che quell'accadimento l'ho vissuto, sarò parte di quel processo 
stesso, nelle vesti di "clima culturale" o "politico" o "economico".
Perché tutto questo bisogno di vedersi riflessi in un contesto 
storicamente determinato? Perché aspettare domani per capire chi siamo?
Poi, d'accordo, come strumento è imprescindibile.
Ciao, e gli altri mi scusino lo sproloquio :)

 degli eventi, nel piattume quotidiano. [snip!]
Direi che sono abbastanza d'accordo con te, insomma non buttiamo via il
bambino con l'acqua sporca ... ;-)
Ciao!
"E' la storia critica che prende le distanze sia dalla storia ufficiale sia
dalla storia revisionista (...) Si situa altrove: in una posizione esterna
rispetto ad atteggiamenti di identificazione".
(di K. Pomian)