The EBacc

[KEV67]

The English Baccalaureate. I do not usually like educational policies handed down by the government, but when I first heard about this I thought it sounded like a good idea. However, it looks like I misunderstood what it was. Either that or the conditions have changed. I thought it would get you an English Baccalaureate if you got GCSEs in one science, maths, English language, a language and a humanity. I thought the humanities would include history, geography, religious education and English literature. I hoped it might include a cultural language like Latin or Welsh. If it was once science then I wondered which would be best to do. I was leaning towards chemistry. However the government website lists the subjects you have you pass as (link)

 

• English language and literature
• maths
• the sciences
• geography or history
• a language

 

But for science you have to study either two combined science GCSEs or three single science GCSEs: physics, chemistry, biology, computer science. For English you have to study English Language GCSE and English Literature GCSE. Only geography or history counts as the humanity. Any ancient or modern language counts for the language. So that is seven or eight GCSE passes. Personally I think that is rubbish and designed to keep teacher in work. It is important to study English Language and Maths of course. There are no social sciences in the list. The closest are geography and history. Geography is half a physical science. I honestly do not think English literature should be all that important. Subjects like geography, history and English literature are mainly practice in writing essays, which is basically practice in writing English. There are thousands and thousands of books in bookshops in which you can knock yourself out on literature, history and geography. You will never get to the end of them. Apart from a potted history of dates and battles, I do not think there is great deal of value in learning history. It is more important to learn a bit of epistemology: how do you know what you know; how to look for bias; history from different view points; corroboration of the written record with other sources of knowledge. I think a cultural language such as Latin or Welsh is more a humanity than a language. If you study Latin then you are studying different parts of language, but you also get taught about another culture's history, myths, literature, wars, religion, politics and value systems. In Latin GCSE you have read and possibly write a bit of Latin, but you do not have to speak or understand it spoken, so it is not like a modern language. Welsh would be a bit different, but I suspect there is quite a bit of Welsh poetry, history and mythology in that subject. A modern language like French, German or Spanish is a different skill. You have to communicate in a different language, which means tuning in your ear. It is very difficult. 

Edited August 20, 2024 by KEV67

[France]

I would disagree with you utterly about the lack of need to teach literature or history Kev (my daughters all did bacs here in France so i do know a little about them).

 

We need to go on teaching literature because no matter what is in bookshops or libraries children or young adults are not likely to go far out of their comfort zone if they aren't guided. How many people would bother to read Shakespeare or go to one of his plays  if they hadn't been introduced to it in class? Yes, it leaves loads of people cold but there's also a lot who have had their horizons broadened by a decent teacher. Also, middle class children might not suffer much if they aren't taught literature, their parents can introduce them to authors and can afford  buy them books (libraries aren't what they used to be) but what about those who grow up where there are practically no books with no encouragement to read?

 

Likewise with history, it's not the battles that are so important as knowing the events and attitudes that shaped them. Particularly in the country that you're living in.  The present becomes a bit of a vacuum when you don't know how you got to this point.

 

The whole point of the bac is that you get a broad spectrum of education with a certain amount of specialisation depending on wich bac you're doing (here you do more Science and maths if you're doing the science bac) and everyone studies Philosophy!

[KEV67]

What do they study in philosophy? It's a big subject. I think epistemology might be useful to know.

[France]

As I've never studied it I'm not sure but the  reasoning behind it being in the curriculum  for everyone, including the scientists, is that it teaches critical thinking.