ABSTRACT
A further constraint - even in schools where the chronological gallop from the origins o f the human species to the Korean War has been abandoned - is that where prehistory is taught at all it is always in the first year. In the next two years the children, with almost Napoleonic certitude, will become medievalists. This developmental approach only serves to reinforce the view that prehistory equates to ‘primitive’ and medieval equates to ‘more civi lized’. History syllabuses inspected in 16 Hampshire schools by Her Majes ty’s Inspectorate o f Schools were all chronological in format (HMI 1983).
