Some of the problems faced by History Teachers in
1. Scanty Knowledge of History
An ordinary history teacher is generally not much interested in his subject and he is not quite enthusiastic to supplement his knowledge of history that he acquired in the school/college age.
He is neither interested in reading nor in excursions. He is not interested to train himself in a scientific way. He generally has wrong notions about historical facts and it leads to a disastrous situation.
Such a teacher is likely to present distorted facts to the pupils and thus distort their personality.
Image Source: basicknowledge101.com/photos/2015/Knowledge-mobilization-word-cloud.jpg
2. Lacks the Knowledge of World History:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Generally history teachers in our schools are found lacking in the knowledge of world history. Due to this lack of knowledge they fail to view the historical facts in their real prospective. Every social or political movement in any part of the world has its effect on the entire world, so it is not possible for anyone to deal with the history of his country quite exclusively. Thus the knowledge of world history is a must for any successful history teacher, without it his teaching will remain imperfect.
3. Religious or Social Bias:
Most of the teacher suffers from such a bias and any one suffering from it cannot provide the correct knowledge of history. If a Hindu teacher is fanatic and has racial bias he cannot teach the history of Muslims period correctly and impartially. He shall definitely be dishonest in teaching because it would be quite difficult for him to explain how the Muslims pondered over the Hindu rulers. Similar situation will exist for teacher of other religions.
4. National Bias:
In the teaching of history, national bias is as harmful as the religious or racial bias. “My country, right or wrong” is a condemned slogan. Patriotism has great virtues and one should be patriotic but patriotism and national bias have different meanings. A true patriot sees and confesses the weaknesses of his country while a person who has national bias cannot do this. A teacher of history suffering from national bias shall never explain before the children the weaknesses of his country.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
If a history teacher in India has national bias, he shall not explain before the children that the Britishers were able to have their rule in this country due to the weaknesses of his own countrymen. On the other hand, he will tell the students that there were no weaknesses in Indian rulers and it was the mere cunningness of Britishers that they dominated over the Indians. A history teacher should be patriotic but he should never have national bias, he should try to develop the international understanding in himself and his people.
5. Faulty Method of Teaching:
In our country history is generally considered to deal with dead princes and bygone events and such a teaching will become lifeless. However, history is a living subject as it deals with ‘drama of the human beings or the stage of the world which is still growing on’. This drama should be presented before the children in a vivid manner in class-room. For this a history teacher should be active and full of life.
6. Lack of Correlation:
Most of the teachers teaching history fail to correlate history with other subjects. Since no subject can be taught in isolation so history should never be taught in such a manner. It is always possible for the history teacher to correlate his subject with geography, civics, economics or craft or any other subject.