Just not cricket ... the exclusion of Winston Churchill is likely to leave traditionalists aghast. (File photo) (Reuters: Toby Melville)
Posted on 07/12/2007 11:42:03 PM PDT by Stoat
Posted
Updated
Just not cricket ... the exclusion of Winston Churchill is likely to leave traditionalists aghast. (File photo) (Reuters: Toby Melville)
Britain's World War II prime minister Winston Churchill has been cut from a list of key historical figures recommended for teaching in English secondary schools, a government agency says.
The radical overhaul of the school curriculum for 11- to 14-year-olds is designed to bring secondary education up to date and allow teachers more flexibility in the subjects they teach, the Government said.
But although Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi, Joseph Stalin and Martin Luther King have also been dropped from the detailed guidance accompanying the curriculum, Sir Winston's exclusion is likely to leave traditionalists aghast.
A spokesman for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority said the new curriculum, to be taught from September 2008, does not prescribe to teachers what they must include.
But he added: "Teachers know that they need to mention these pivotal figures. They don't need to be instructed by law to mention them in every history class.
"Of course, good teachers will be teaching the history of Churchill as part of the history of Britain. The two are indivisible."
Sir Winston's grandson Nicholas Soames, also a Conservative Member of Parliament, described the move as "madness."
"It is absurd. I expect he wasn't New Labour enough for them ... this is a Government that is very careless of British history and always has been.
"The teaching of history is incredibly important," he added.
"If you're surprised that people do not seem to care that much about the country in which they live, the reason is that they don't know much about it."
The History Curriculum Association said it was "appalled" by the move, saying the new curriculum would "promote ignorance" and was pandering to a politically-correct agenda.
The Conservatives' schools spokesman Michael Gove added: "Winston Churchill is the towering figure of 20th century British history.
"His fight against fascism was Britain's finest hour. Our national story can't be told without Churchill at the centre."
Schools Secretary Ed Balls defended the move, saying a slimmed-down curriculum was overdue and traditional elements in all subjects had been protected.
Among the few named figures that stay in the new history curriculum are William Wilberforce, the British law maker who was instrumental in efforts to abolish the slave trade.
Sir Winston, who was British prime minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955, was famous for his defiance to the Nazis, stirring oratory and trademark cigar and "V for victory" sign.
In 2002, a BBC poll with more than one million votes saw him voted the Greatest Briton of all time.
and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.
Of course, when he wrote this, Winston probably never even imagined the forces of political correctness, which threaten to neutralize every technological advantage the West has. We could use more of him today.
I hasten to say that Churchill was probably THE towering figure of the last century—and not just British. The only others who come close are the Roosevelts (Teddy & Franklin**) and Ronald Reagan. And, unfortunately for Teddy, he was never tested in the way that Winston was.
**I know lots of Freepers hate FDR, but he did successfully lead the nation through WWII. Eisenhower and Truman should also get honorable mention.
Unfortunately, what is happening in the UK is also happening in the US. Our Founding Fathers are more and more looked upon as nothing more than old, dead, white men who owned slaves.
"When duty calls, you've got Balls!"
No, no, no. It sounds better to say he was dropped from the curriculum. Sells more papers. And gets people riled up more.
I’m shocked that Churchill and Hitler aren’t going to be taught, given that little dust-up known as the “London Blitz.”
In all seriousness, they’ve got to at least have one line about Churchill in their lessons... “If not for Winston Churchill, you’d be reading this in German, if at all.”
Mark
It should be a component of...wait for it...Home Economics.
If you send the US Marines in to land at Cleethorpes Beach, a lot of us won’t object.
I can already detect a sinister re-packaging of history, with some textbooks labelling Germany and Japan as victims in 1945, and Britain and America as committing numerous war crimes against humanity ; for example, telling modern schoolchildren that the atomic bomb at Nagasaki was dropped after Japan surrendered.
I am only glad my Grandad and his brothers are all dead now.
I wonder why they bothered fighting for this shite country.
Churchill is not only important to history for his contribution to the stand against the nazis. He was also a pivotal figure in welfare state reforms and highly relevant to discussions about the changing attitudes to imperialism which are an important aspect of 20th Century history
bttt
Good Golly - and it they take out Churchill et al from the history books - it wont be long before the teachers themselves wont know who he is =
Teachers know that they need to mention these pivotal figures. They don't need to be instructed by law to mention them in every history class. "Of course, good teachers will be teaching the history of Churchill as part of the history of Britain. The two are indivisible."
so much pap to calm the masses. And you fall for it???
That boat don't float.
Not to mention, how long do you think it would take before teachers were called on the carpet for 'teaching things NOT in the curriculum"
Swallow that BIG LIE to your peril -
The key word there is "competent." With all due respect, I don't know if the UK's teacher cert standards are the same as ours, but there are a majority of high school teachers in ALL subjects here in the US that I wouldn't trust to teach kids to wipe their arses.
That may well be so: but there remains rather a large difference between a government instructing you to do something, a government instructing you not to do that thing, and a government leaving you free to do or not do that thing as you see fit. I’d need a lot of persuading that the third of these options is not to preferred, in this as in most other circumstances.
Radical change, of the sort you are claiming people here are shrieking about, very, very seldom happens in one fell swoop.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.”
This is how that happens.
CA....
Thank you so much for this essential and highly relevant question. I telephoned the House of Commons Switchboard, and the extremely polite, helpful and friendly lady who answered told me that for Nicholas Soames it is appropriate to address him as "Mr. Soames" within the greeting and body of the letter, such as "Dear Mr. Soames", and when addressing the letter to it's destination it is appropriate to put "The Rt. Hon. Nicholas Soames" on the address area of the envelope (or if you are adding an address in the email)..
It was nice that your question provided an 'excuse' for me to research it a bit, because I found a page online which outlines the appropriate ways of addressing Lords, but I didn't find any similar page for MP's.
UK Parliament - How do you address a Lord
Thanks,
AR
You're quite welcome and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn something new as well :-)
I'm delighted that you're interested in writing Mr. Soames and I'm sure that he will be quite pleased to learn of your own as well as America's high regard for his grandfather Sir Winston Churchill.
“Good Golly - and it they take out Churchill et al from the history books - it wont be long before the teachers themselves wont know who he is =”
Who is ‘taking Churchill out of the history books’?
“Not to mention, how long do you think it would take before teachers were called on the carpet for ‘teaching things NOT in the curriculum””
No, that’s exactly what they are supposed to do. Personally I was always opposed to a prescriptive national curriculum. What’s the point of having history teachers if they can’t work out for themselves what they need to teach?
Incidently, do you have such a thing as a national curriculum in the US? Or is it down to individual districts/schools/teachers to make sure the relevant lessons are taught? If it’s the latter, don’t you think it’s a tad hypocritcal all the posters in this thread slamming the UK for moving in the same direction?
ping
http://www.thisisrumorcontrol.org/node/2277
"A report in the Guardian [English newspaper] suggests that despite the revisions, some teachers will offer students their own take on recent events with one young woman who is studying to be a teacher saying: "I will teach my students what I see: that Americans are the terrorists. Bush entered Iraq to take oil, not to free Iraq. They just want money and oil from Iraq. This is what I know and this is definitely what I will teach."
The writer correctly identifies Plato as the one who argued that "those who tell the stories rule society"
The article is titled: "Those Who do not Know History are Doomed to Repeat It."
We've all heard that one. It is an absolute. I don't see that the writer gave credit to the author of the phrase, but i believe it was George Santayana in his book: "Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense" (Scribner's, 1905)
These truisms are modern day parables.
the Parables, catchy little phrases that kids could memorize and would recall from time to time throughout life, were/are valuable lessons - truths well remembered and followed.
You wont hear them today -
‘Another pint, mate, so to pee me history away.
Well, probably because world war eleven is an event of the distant future.
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