THERE has been some debate in HAS recently about the teaching of British history. Writing as someone who has taken many part-time, history-based courses in adult education, a balanced course in the subject would teach both about the periods when we have backed the side of good, fought for liberty and emerged as the victor and also when we have backed tyrants and mistreated our own population and those under our colonial rule, plus the periods of British history that were full of defeat and failure.

The student of history should be encouraged to draw his or her conclusion by studying aspects of history further.

I have little doubt that the teaching of history in some schools leaves a lot to be desired.

In one GCSE history course students were given the choice of the First World War or the history of professional football.

Not surprisingly, most chose the latter.

We cannot face up to or solve the problems of the future without knowledge of the past.

It is interesting to study the history of computer technology where we can learn how much British expertise contributed to the development of the internet.

Peter J Brown, Middlesbrough.