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Churchill dropped from England's history syllabus (" pandering to a P.C. agenda")
ABC News (Australia), The Sun (U.K.) ^ | July 13, 2007

Posted on 07/12/2007 11:42:03 PM PDT by Stoat

Churchill dropped from England's history syllabus

Posted 9 hours 19 minutes ago
Updated 4 hours 38 minutes ago

Just not cricket ... the exclusion of Winston Churchill is likely to leave traditionalists aghast. (File photo)

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: anglosphere; britain; censorship; churchill; education; england; greatbritain; history; milhist; militaryhistory; purge; revisionismliars; stalin; totalfreakinmadness; uk; unitedkingdom; westerncivilization; winstonchurchill; ww2
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To: Stoat

Damn P.C. Nazis taking over.


81 posted on 07/13/2007 2:03:55 PM PDT by dragonblustar (Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room. - Churchill)
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To: Stoat
G-dD-mmit, if there was ever a "stand and fight" topic at freerepublic.com...
this is it!!!!

Churchill dropped from England's history syllabus

A Patriot

A Wordsmith (with VERY FEW peers, before, during or after his life)

A Humanist and politician dedicated to liberty, personal duty,
sacrifice and the advancement of civilization as seen by educated members of the living entities listed as homo sapiens even by the
most deluted socialist and/or Communist...

And NOW "Educators" think Winston should be deleted from the history books?

WHAT AN UNDULTERATED CROCK OF Bravo Sierra!!!!!!!!!!
82 posted on 07/13/2007 2:16:12 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Petronski
(... WW11 ...) Well, probably because world war eleven is an event of the distant future

Well, just golly gee. That was surely the most important observation of the post - maybe the whole thread. So glad you were here to catch it...

83 posted on 07/13/2007 2:18:19 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ( "...but you can't fool all of the people all the time." LINCOLN)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo
Churchill has always been villified by many of the elite and many
devotees of the trendy.


Just like Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II.

The triumvirate that stood tall, encured the heat and sent
The Evil Empire onto the ash-heap of history.
84 posted on 07/13/2007 2:19:56 PM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA; All
G-dD-mmit, if there was ever a "stand and fight" topic at freerepublic.com...
this is it!!!!

Agreed on all counts.  If you and other similarly-impassioned folks might like to send a kind word to The Right Honorable Nicholas Soames, MP (Grandson of Winston Churchill) I have no doubt that he would be overjoyed to hear that there is so much support for his grandfather and his grandfather's legacy.

I've already collected some contact information, which you can see at posts #33 and #75.

Perhaps he may be able to advise you on how to go about making your voice heard in the most effective way in this matter?

Getting an avalanche of negative mail on education policy from within the UK is one thing, but adding to that an additional cascade from the USA is something entirely different.  Perhaps it could cause a change of heart on the part of the "small-minded education chiefs" ("Sun Says" quote).

85 posted on 07/13/2007 2:33:46 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Stoat

Another reason “today’s educators” would delete Winston Churchill
from the syllabi...Winston Churchill was a better WRITER and HISTORIAN
that about 99.99% of the education/history PhDs spat out by today’s universities.

My Exhibit A:

History of the English Speaking People - 4-Volume Box Set
by Winston Churchill
http://www.amazon.com/History-English-Speaking-People-4/dp/077102004X/ref=sr_1_6/002-0432971-8074452?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184361940&sr=1-6

(personal note: I attended a high school in a VERY conservative
oil/energy town...and a VERY conservative,
fundamantalist church-affiliated Christian college...
but I only stumbled across this gem at a near-by public university.

Yep, this history series was BURIED in the bowels of the reference
section of the library...and I just accidentally stumbled on it.


86 posted on 07/13/2007 2:40:04 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Stoat
got my letter ready to "post" to Mr. Soames:

The RT. Hon. Nicholas Soames

HOUSE COMMONS

London, UK SW1A 0AA

87 posted on 07/13/2007 2:42:08 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ( "...but you can't fool all of the people all the time." LINCOLN)
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To: Stoat

Stoat,
I’m sure I sound a bit maniacal about this “erasure” in history education.
It’s just another maddening example of average talents trying to
elevate themselves by wiping out the memory of great and very human man.

I guess my only excuses for my thoughts are that I’m geographically
close to the site of one of Mr. Churchill’s wise proclamation:

http://www.churchillmemorial.org/

And was recently suprised that there seems to be no modern DVD copy
of a favorite film from my youth (”Young Winston”):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069528/

I guess that in the past it was the victors that wrote history...
now it seems that the “winners” are the ones that decide which films
will make the leap to DVD (and which will die in VHS obscurity)


88 posted on 07/13/2007 2:51:27 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Names Ash Housewares
How prophetic....and he was only 25 at the time.
89 posted on 07/13/2007 2:56:37 PM PDT by Churchillspirit (We are all foot soldiers in this War On Terror.)
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To: Stoat
....the exclusion of Winston Churchill is likely to leave traditionalists aghast...

I am a traditionalist - and I am aghast!

90 posted on 07/13/2007 2:58:01 PM PDT by Churchillspirit (We are all foot soldiers in this War On Terror.)
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To: Stoat

Don’t forget, the Brits rewarded Churchill for guiding them through WW2 by running him out of office as quickly as practicable.


91 posted on 07/13/2007 2:59:55 PM PDT by HitmanLV ("Lord, give me chastity and temperance, but not now." - St. Augustine)
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To: maine-iac7
got my letter ready to "post" to Mr. Soames:

WOW!  That's wonderful!  I'm sure that he will be very happy to hear from you.

After receiving such a personal slap as well as in knowing full well the damage to the Truth that this new agenda will wreak upon the world, I am guessing that he is particularly appreciative of support these days.

92 posted on 07/13/2007 3:01:45 PM PDT by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: Winniesboy
Oh, and in case you missed my post # 78,p. since you posted "A lot of misplaced froth here, it seems to me. The indignation expressed in most of the posts on this thread seems to have led people to overlook the following paragraph:

(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.")

He's saying that a competent teacher of history should be trusted to cover key figures like Churchill as a matter of course, and doesn't need a government edict to instruct him to do so. This seems to me be entirely reasonable and a welcome change.,

my post included the following quote

""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."

Yep. That'll work.

93 posted on 07/13/2007 3:08:36 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ( "...but you can't fool all of the people all the time." LINCOLN)
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To: rlmorel
It gives me chills just to read it again.

Me too - along with a lump in the throat and a tear in my eye.

94 posted on 07/13/2007 3:09:43 PM PDT by Churchillspirit (We are all foot soldiers in this War On Terror.)
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To: Names Ash Housewares
As a young man he made this observation.........

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.…A degraded sensual ism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities ... but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; 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. [The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pp. 248-50.]

Bears reposting!

He was in the countries where the mooseslimes were - he saw it first hand - BUT

It dawned on me - it's writings like this - betcha - that is getting him banned. The mooseslimes have demanded it - betcha.

95 posted on 07/13/2007 3:24:21 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ( "...but you can't fool all of the people all the time." LINCOLN)
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To: VOA
Another reason “today’s educators” would delete Winston Churchill from the syllabi...Winston Churchill was a better WRITER and HISTORIAN that about 99.99% of the education/history PhDs spat out by today’s universities. My Exhibit A:

Yep and he wrote a piece laying out the mooseslimes for exactly what they were when he wrote the piece almost a hundred years ago - could have been written today.

See post # 3

I smell a mooseslime demand to deep six him - so they wont be offended. (It matters naught that any thinking member of the "Infidels", around the world, are mightily offended.

I have just one member in my family that is hard leftist. (He never used to be - until after his stroke. (Just dawned on me that there may be a connection here that would also explain the rest of the libRats - brain damaged.(

Anyway, the edicts of the mooseslimes regarding Pakistan for the mosque battle came up on the news - I made a remark and added that, oh yes, and on England too for knighting Salman Rushdie. My leftie relative says: "Well, they should have known better."

"Excuse me???" I remarked.

"They should have know the Muslims would be offended. They should have known better than to do it."

I should have just let it go, but words started coming out of my mouth, like: "Oh, right. We should have learned our instructions by now. Always be sure, before doing anything, that it wont upset the Mooseslimes. Well, guess what? Blowing people to bits is a little offensive to me."

On that note, I had to leave.

96 posted on 07/13/2007 3:50:08 PM PDT by maine-iac7 ( "...but you can't fool all of the people all the time." LINCOLN)
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To: Stoat
I noticed a contradiction:

Quote 1. Schools Secretary Ed Balls defended the move, saying a slimmed-down curriculum was overdue and traditional elements in all subjects had been protected.

Quote 2. But the plan — hatched by advisers — angered schools secretary Ed Balls, who vowed to probe ALL the changes to the curriculum.

-----

So which is it? Does Ed Balls defend the change or does it anger him?

Churchill — voted the greatest ever Briton — goes off the required lessons list, along with Hitler, Gandhi, Stalin and Martin Luther King. ... There will also be no need to mention the Wars of the Roses, Elizabeth I or Henry VIII. -- (and all the other changes listed)

The yoot are going to be even stupider than they are now. < :P

The proposals will see traditional timetables torn up, with pupils focusing on modern “relevant” topics such as ... climate change

Yes, make sure that the children are indoctrinated into that.

Schools will be able to stop teaching French, German and Spanish and offer other languages, including Urdu, Chinese, Russian, and Arabic.

The UK is part of the European Union, but it's going to be offering Urdu, Chinese, Russian, and Arabic? Gearing up for something? A huge influx of more Middle Easterners (or Asians, as they like to call them)? Or just gearing up for any possible future overlords?

97 posted on 07/13/2007 3:50:28 PM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp (Evil never stops.)
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To: BuffaloJack
Hey I hear they also dropped Adolf Hitler, and Stalin from the curriculum too.

How the hell are they going to discuss WW2 without mentioning them???

98 posted on 07/13/2007 3:55:21 PM PDT by mware (By all that you hold dear..on this good earth... I bid you stand! Men of the West!)
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To: Names Ash Housewares

Thank you for taking the time to look that quote up, and for posting it.


99 posted on 07/13/2007 4:48:35 PM PDT by ncpatriot
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To: mware

“Hey I hear they also dropped Adolf Hitler, and Stalin from the curriculum too.

How the hell are they going to discuss WW2 without mentioning them???”

No-one is saying they shouldn’t mention them (or Churchill) so I doubt it will be a problem.


100 posted on 07/13/2007 4:56:18 PM PDT by JHT
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