本文介紹並分析英國倫敦大學兩位學者：John White 和Peter Lee關於歷史與歷史教育的爭論。White從教育學的角度申論，歷史教育必須以一般學校教育的廣大宗旨為尊。歷史教學主要在提供某些 「有用」的知識，幫助學生獨立自主，以增進未來社會生活中的福址，並培養自由民主的工業社會中公民應有的認同感。Lee則以為歷史教育絕不能屈就於社會政治目的之下，為現實宣傳所用，否則歷史將失去其正當基礎。歷史所能教給學生的是一套理性考察過去的方法，一種看待世界與人的方式，使能視野開闊，養成開放的胸懷，進而增加個人的自我認識，對未來發展的可能性多一分理解。這才是歷史價值所在。

　　　　　This article is to analyze the argument of John White and Peter Lee in University of London on the aim of history-teaching. John White, specializing in the philosophy of education, argues that school history must locate its place in the wider picture of educational aims. History-teaching in school sould hand on "useful knowledge" that is necessary for the cultivation of students' personal qualities, like self-knowledge, autonomy and patriotism, which are demands on citizens of a liberal-democratic society. As for Peter Lee, engaged in philosophy of history and children's concepts of history, he insists that history is not a means to the end of general education. History, as the rational study of the past, can expand our whole picture of the world, of what human beings are and might be. Through vicarious experience from history, students are also given some purchase on the future. In Lee's view, these are exactly the value of history and the aim of history-teaching.