Academy President, appeal to save history education in local schools

The President of the Romanian Academy, Ioan-Aurel Pop, launched an appeal to save history education, at a time when Romanian schools seem to be chasing trends and experimenting with entire generations of students. During the debate "Is History Still Needed in Schools?", recently organized at the Romanian Academy Library, President Ioan-Aurel Pop sounded the alarm regarding the future of this fundamental subject.

• The History of Communism is Not a Subject, but Necessary Content

One of the most important clarifications made by Ioan-Aurel Pop was the conceptual clarification between "discipline" and "content". In recent years, the idea of introducing the History of Communism as a distinct subject in schools has been circulating. However, according to the historian, this is not a stand-alone discipline, but an essential chapter in contemporary history, which must be taught naturally and integrated into the general framework of modern historical developments.

"I'm not saying that moral, entrepreneurial or sexual education should not be done - but not by transforming them all into disciplines," argues Ioan-Aurel Pop. He also says that the problem is broader: Romanian schools suffer from a phenomenon of thematic fragmentation, in which any social need becomes a "subject", and the curriculum is filled with episodic courses, without coherence, without a clear formative horizon.

• History - the expression of collective memory

History, Ioan-Aurel Pop emphasized, is not a simple enumeration of facts and data, but the collective memory of a society, the equivalent of an individual's personal memory:

"A man without memories ends up in neurology. A society without history can no longer function." In the context of a globalization that erodes identities and a digital culture that promotes accelerated forgetting, history becomes an instrument of cultural resistance and of reconnecting with the values and trajectories of the past, the academician also argues.

• One hour a week is not enough for a fundamental subject

Ioan-Aurel Pop called for a return to two hours of History per week, evoking not only arguments of didactic efficiency, but also historical examples: "Subjects that have one hour a week are not serious subjects. Teachers can confirm. What can you do in one hour a week? Since Comenius, subjects have two or more hours a week. Mathematics, Romanian, Physics, Chemistry, Biology were done in more than two hours. Mathematics - four, five, Romanian - four... When I was a student. History and Geography were two hours. And things went well, not 30 - 40 years, about four centuries, since the Renaissance. (...) There were three holidays among Christian peoples: the Christmas holiday, the Easter holiday and the long holiday. They did not change even during the communist regime. My grandmother used to tell me: «look, the Christmas holiday is coming» Christmas. Be careful, Santa Claus won't come, if I don't know what to do". "Easter is coming, now, we have to do this, that"; on vacation. And the communists didn't ban vacations either. Now there are cycles, with five vacations a year, my dears. There are no more quarters, no semesters. A semester means six months. There are modules, forgive me, modules..."

• A critique of the reform without vision

Ioan-Aurel Pop criticized the way in which reforms are being carried out in the Romanian education system: chaotic, without testing, without evaluating the effects, without a long-term strategy. This instability affects not only the educational rhythm, but also the psychological and social structure of the student, the teacher and the family. The President of the Academy also argues that the return to a solid, coherent and respected historical education is not a nostalgic fad, but a strategic necessity. In an increasingly polarized world, with fake news, propaganda and identity crises, history remains the only real space for democratic and moral literacy. Historical education should not be reduced to a class to be ticked off on the timetable, but treated as a discipline for the formation of the human being and the citizen.