ABSTRACT
The debate over whether history and geography should be taught as separate slots on the school timetable or should be presented in some integrated or routined framework is not new. In fact Naish, as early as 1972, called on geographers to contribute actively to humanities courses and not just to stand back passively on the sidelines. Since then the debate has rumbled on, though it has revived recently as GCSE courses in humanities (some integrated, others modular) have become fashionable and seemingly one way of coping with the time constraints of the National Curriculum. However it is in the first two years of the secondary school that humanities courses are most prevalent. A recently published HMI survey (DES, 1988) showed that only 11 per cent of the schools surveyed offered a first-year humanities course. This figure had reduced to 5 per cent by the third year. However there are some local education authorities in which humanities courses are more common than this. By GCSE the usual single subjects have reasserted their dominance.
