{"id":3395,"date":"2015-11-14T17:47:33","date_gmt":"2015-11-14T07:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=3395"},"modified":"2015-11-14T17:52:57","modified_gmt":"2015-11-14T07:52:57","slug":"the-bees-in-my-bonnet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=3395","title":{"rendered":"THE BEES IN MY BONNET"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CHS2\"<\/a>Because I write mainly children\u2019s fiction, I think a lot about the child\u2019s view of history. How to give children a sense of the past. Not facts, not dates, but feeling, a sense that the people who lived in this place before them had lives that were similar but also very different. What those differences were \u2013 transport, technology, social mores, how those things effected the day-to-day functioning of households, schools, shops, businesses \u2013 can be shown in stories, not as the subject of the story, but incidentally. And, incidentally, I often think that\u2019s the best way of learning.<\/p>\n

History\u2019s subject is change. We\u2019re here now, looking back to then and we have to use not just our curiosity, but our imaginative power to try to see. I guess that\u2019s where I, as a creative writer, come in.<\/p>\n

Not that any of this has been uppermost as I\u2019ve worked. The three Verity Sparks novels are intended for readers 9 to around 12. They appeal mainly to girls. They would be shelved with Junior Fiction in libraries or bookshops. They\u2019re meant to be entertaining rather than instructive, but I think most writers would agree you can\u2019t help involving your own preoccupations, the bees in your bonnet, in your work. The bees in my bonnet are, and always have been, three things – the past, time and memory. In one word, history.<\/p>\n

At primary school, I was taught Australian history according to the fashion of the day. It was dull. Episodes that could have interested me, such as the stories of inland exploration, were inexplicably drained of life and excitement. And there hardly ever seemed to be any women! I\u2019m afraid that I grew up thinking that Australia was definitely a loser in the history stakes; Europe with its queens and castles and wars was infinitely more fun. Which is sad, in a way. This is my country.<\/p>\n

I certainly hope things are different today and that in the hands of teachers, the undertaking of history will come alive. Though the rationale for teaching history, according to a document put out by the Victorian Government, speaks of fostering \u2018curiosity and imagination\u2019, here are the actual stated aims.<\/p>\n

AusVELS History\u00a0aims to ensure that students develop:<\/p>\n