This type of integration "kills" History subject.

Regarding the "integrated" subject of History and Geography in the new curriculum for middle school, teacher Nhat Duy has an article sharing his perspective.

Mr. Duy believes that the 2000 Program once "killed History", and this could happen more seriously in the new program.

"Integrating" 2 or 3 subjects into 1 book has become the focus of public attention in the new general education program.

The case of "forcing" Physics - Chemistry - Biology into 1 Natural Science subject but still being taught by 3 teachers, has been analyzed a lot by teachers.

Now we would like to analyze the shortcomings of tying two subjects, History and Geography, into one History and Geography textbook for middle school in the new program, a very subjective, voluntaristic and unscientific approach.

After the unsatisfactory questions on the Vietnam Education Electronic Newspaper between teachers and some editors and editors-in-chief, we can only wait for the announcement of the draft curriculum.

On November 19, 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training announced the draft curriculum of subjects. We found that History and Geography are still two independent "sub-subjects".

The most basic difference is that this subject is arranged in a spatial order: World-region-Vietnam-locality, but in the "sub-subject" of History, it is much more complicated than in the 2000 Program.

Because in addition to the time axis (arranged by era), there is now an additional space axis, meaning that in the same historical period, instead of studying world history or Vietnamese history, students will now have to study both and two more parts: regional history and local history.

Along with the change in spatial arrangement, the curriculum editors have not yet "thought of" any more integrated topics, other than the 4 "integrated" topics of History and Geography.

Integration disorder

The integration of the two subjects History and Geography is oriented by the editorial board as follows:

“In the program, there are three levels of integrating History and Geography content: a) subject integration (in each History education content and Geography education);

b) Integrate History content in appropriate parts of the Geography lesson and integrate Geography content in appropriate parts of the History lesson, in order to create the best comparison and interaction between the knowledge of the two subjects;

c) Integration creates interdisciplinary topics”.

Responding to the press about this subject a few days ago, Professor Nguyen Minh Thuyet - Editor-in-Chief of the new general education program talked about integrating History and Geography at the secondary school level:

“The new point in the structure and integration of the history subject at the secondary school level is that if the current history curriculum and textbooks write about world history separately, then Vietnamese history, then the history content in the new curriculum at the secondary school level takes the time axis as the consistent axis.

Therefore, in each historical period, we try to design according to the model: world - region - Vietnam - local history, in which, taking Vietnamese history as the focus, accounting for 60% of the program's duration.".

Thus, the integration of the subject will be rotated along the axis of world-region-Vietnam-locality. In some lessons of the two subjects History and Geography, it will be possible to integrate in the "appropriate parts" and in addition, there will be 4 more integrated topics for the whole secondary school level.

In our opinion, if the program only "integrates" that much, then combining the two current independent subjects at the junior high school level into one integrated subject is unconvincing and unscientific.

Because in fact the "integration" factor only lies in 4 topics for these 2 subjects.

Is what the curriculum committee calls “inner-disciplinary integration” really integration?

In our opinion, arranging the content of History or Geography together according to a certain structure is not integration.

Because compared to the current program which is arranged in separate parts, now the program editors just "rearrange" it to make it "newer" and more complex, combining chronology with spatial sequence.

Illustration photo.

Therefore, in our opinion, the act of combining knowledge units of a subject in spatial order to call it "integration" is very forced, not in accordance with scientific terminology and what the Ministry has implemented for teachers in the past.

For example, Literature has 3 sub-subjects: Vietnamese, writing and literary works. The content of these 3 parts has different roles and purposes, so when combined, it can be called integrated subject.

If we say that the History or Geography subjects combine the contents of the world - region - country - locality together as "internal integration", then what should we call the integration of the Literature subject, because the Literature subject also has parts of world literature - regional literature - Vietnamese literature - local literature?

Arranging the spatial similarities of a subject to call it "integration" is clearly just a word game to fool public opinion, but cannot convince teachers who are teaching these two subjects as well as public opinion.

Teachers have been integrated for a long time

Just because they want to have "integrated subjects" to have "something new" compared to the current program, the program drafting committee wants to eliminate independent subjects. I really don't know what to say.

In fact, since there was no intention to combine these two subjects into one, in the teaching process, teachers have been doing the integration work for a long time, and the teachers have done it even better than the program they prepared to launch.

For example, when teaching about the Red River Delta (geography), teachers not only provide students with geographical knowledge but also provide them with the history of the formation of the Red River Delta (history);

You can also read Nguyen Khuyen's Autumn poems and some poems and folk songs about the seasons of the year (literature), which also provide information about which seasons have what types of fruits and products typical of each region and locality (biology)...

When teaching about the terrain of the North Central region and mentioning the Truong Son mountain range, teachers can also read the poem "Passing Ngang Pass" by Ba Huyen Thanh Quan (literature);

You can also hum the song Truong Son Dong - Truong Son Tay by Phan Huynh Dieu, based on the poem by Pham Tien Duat (music); you can also tell your children about Lord Nguyen Hoang's journey to double Vietnam (History)...

The essence of what the program editors say will be integrating is either internal or interdisciplinary.“wherever is appropriate”Teachers have been doing these jobs for a long time, and they have been doing them for decades.

History was once ruined by "integration"

During the current curriculum and textbook change (Program 2000), the teachers who compiled the curriculum and textbooks "integrated" knowledge about state management, culture, economics, politics... into the History subject, History and Geography books for grades 4 and 5.

This method has killed History, because before the 2000 Program, our generation only started learning History and Geography in middle school, but the current program has brought these two subjects down to elementary school.

Furthermore, teachers who compile textbooks know that children as young as 9 or 10 years old become superheroes, with brains that have memories like supercomputers;

Because in the 4th grade history section alone in the "integrated" History and Geography subject, they had to memorize "general historical knowledge" of 26 centuries, from the Van Lang State to the Nguyen Dynasty.

Furthermore, the teachers also "integrate" all kinds of information and knowledge of science subjects that only university students can access, into the very immature minds of 4th graders:

Lesson 13. Tran Dynasty and dike building; Lesson 17. Later Le Dynasty and the organization and management of the country; Lesson 18. Schools in the Later Le Dynasty; Lesson 19. Literature and science in the Later Le Dynasty;

Lesson 22. The reclamation in Dang Trong; Lesson 23. Urban areas in the 16th-17th centuries; Lesson 26. Economic and cultural policies of King Quang Trung.

Therefore, in the 2015 national high school graduation exam, History had the lowest number of candidates choosing to take the exam, with 153,688 students registering (accounting for 15.3% of the total of nearly 960,000 candidates registering for the exam).

Luong The Vinh School (Hanoi), only 1 student chose History. Viet Duc High School (Hanoi) has 3%, Dinh Tien Hoang High School has 6% of students registered for this subject...

On the morning of July 4, at the examination sites in Yen Thanh and Thai Hoa town (Nghe An), chaired by the Examination Council of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, there was only 1 candidate taking the History exam...

VTV had a report that startled us and caused pain for our country's general education, especially history education.

37/40 Hanoi students aged 9-15 answered incorrectly the question about the relationship between Quang Trung and Nguyen Hue.

All these tragedies are the responsibility of the education sector, but no one is responsible.

As a professor who is in charge of this curriculum and textbook change said, "the incumbent does not even take responsibility, let alone the retired one", because "our country has been like this for a long time".

The new program will add another blow to History when, in addition to the "general historical knowledge" as above, students must also remember "world history, regional history, local history" along with Vietnamese history in the same period.

Current education is making our students lose their roots.

There have been too many lessons about the destruction of a nation and a people starting from the loss of their roots in the way of education. I wonder if the teachers who compile the program have ever thought about this?