In my view: Teaching Time

History is about time, it subsists in time, time is the medium by which it happens. No-one can deny the importance of time in teaching history, yet it is probably the one element that causes more dispute than any other. The meaning of time

Understanding time

There is time we can understand and time we can't. You may say to me ‘400 years ago' until you are blue in the face and although I can do calculations with it I can never comprehend it. Sometimes I try with children ridiculous enterprises - saying seven times my age would be nearly it, but in truth we are no nearer comprehending the figure than before.

Equally ‘The seventeenth century' or ‘The middle ages' or ‘The Victorians' cannot be comprehended in any real terms at all. I can mark them by dates, I can count the number of years, but in truth I know nothing of their time.

What I do know a little about are minutes, hours, days, weeks, possibly years. Yet I have to remember that my knowledge of these is not a constant comparitor...