As you say, it's all about context. Schools wouldn't have to teach every era in fine detail. They could teach an overview of "civilised??!!" history and then focus. Just taking one era could easily end up with the students believing it was the era with the worse abuses because they know no better, it then gets built into their psyche.
Whilst we on this topic, I want to add that judging the past by today's standards is fraught with dangers, again we don't usually employ the full context or understand the standards of the day. In the future, our time and ourselves will likely be totally pilloried for destroying the planet and bringing about the demise of mankind.
Yes, I take your point, but first of all, what is ‘civilised’ history? Second, just teaching an overview of history would be problematic, do you try to give an overview of all civilisation? How do you give an overview of, for example, Chinese civilisation, Indian civilisation alongside Mayan, Inca, American Indian etc etc etc. How far back do you go? Recent Archaeology suggests that Neanderthals were civilised and as there was inter breeding, is the story of our prehistory important to an understanding of our present.
That is not to say that the teaching of history shouldn’t be all inclusive, but dumping it all on schools is not possible, there just isn’t the space in the curriculum.
On your second point I tend to agree, but with the inevitable but, which is that in the case of climate changed we should be pilloried past, present and future. The wrongs of the way we treat out planet are well known today, and were well known long ago, they’re just being ignored while short term profits are prioritised. It could be argued that we are where we are on the climate because voters vote for the politics of short term economic gain over more substantial claims of climate justice. We can’t look back and say we didn’t know, because we do. We are just making a choice
Same with slavery. The horrors of slavery and colonialism were known at the time. The story of
Thomas Picton (originally posted by
@paulfromcamden) is illustrative. Thomas Picton was governor Trinidad who liked to torture young girls. He developed new forms of torture that were horrific in the extreme. He was arrested and charged, and when his case became known, it caused outrage. Quite rightly. However, despite the severity of his crimes being known, the case against him was eventually dropped, his fees were paid by sympathetic slave owners, he was subsequently promoted by Wellington and given a gong by Prince Regent George.
So like climate change, the evils of slavery and colonialism were well known at the time. They were just ignored.