SPARE OUR CHILDRENS young minds from the abuses of politicians who wish to eviscerate objectivity in the teaching of history in order to advance their own particular cause.
When the world was more prolific regarding communist states than, thankfully, it is today; the leaders of such grotesquery set about indoctrinating their up and coming generations into the virtues of communism, the cruelties of Western Imperialism, and the insights provided by Historical Materialism.
When the world was more prolific regarding Nazi states than, thankfully, it is today; the leaders of such grotesquery set about indoctrinating their up and coming generations into the virtues of anti-Semitism, the Jewish world conspiracy that was capitalism, Arian perfection, and the inferiority of the black races.
During the days of the British Empire the children of our ruling class were taught to believe themselves part of a people chosen by God to oversee the affairs of the world; and many stupid, not to say cruel things were done in the name of such an empire; and for the past forty years our children have been indoctrinated into an equally dangerous notion – that the British Empire was wholly evil.
The Empire did marvellous things for the different cultures they colonised; and, as far as colonisation went, the pink coloured part of the map was better served than those parts that fell afoul of French, German, and, worst of all, Belgium colonialism.
In India we built the city of Bombay, created a fully functioning civil service and administrative centre, and built a railway system which is in use today. What is more we left the country better than we found it. If the Empire had been as evil and tyrannical as many of our own liberals like to paint it; we would not be host to so many from the Indian sub-continent today.
WE MUST ALWAYS BE ON OUR guard when politicians seek to rearrange the educational deck, especially when it comes to the teaching of their nation’s history.
The latest such manoeuvring is becoming evident across the border where it is said the Scottish National Party (SNP) are seeking such nefarious alterations to the history curriculum in Scottish schools.
Now, a nation’s history is meant to be a truthful and balanced record of events and episodes in the progress of a nation’s unfolding. It is meant to be a trusted record, constantly being challenged by historians when a new insight into a particular event or chapter challenges the accepted wisdom. This is the correct approach to the teaching of history. It must not be used as a weapon by politicians to wheedle their way into the minds of children through changing the school curriculum, and then removing those parts that may distort the historical narrative they wish to impose. If this is not another form of child abuse, then I know not what is.
Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, is about to repeat the stupidities of stupid men in times past; men who, like him, had a conviction that warranted the censoring of history for the good of the nation. As a nationalist, Salmond has a view of Scottish history which he wants all children in Scotland to learn. This history, however, has been made somewhat anorexic by what it is prepared to leave out. Instead of a feast of learning, the pupils of Scotland will be left to the unfulfilling mercies of Alec Salmond’s thin gruel of the kind which Ebenezer Scrooge once enjoyed, and believed perfectly adequate.
If reports prove correct then those children in Scotland preparing to study their Highers will be told that Britain is an ‘arch-imperialist villain’, while the Empire will be restricted to lessons about slavery.
The Great War also suffers from the censors pen; as the SNP finds it sufficient to teach it only from the perspective of those Scots that took part. As for Scottish history…well, you have guessed it. Hollywood will play its role – for where else could a disseminator of historical distortion turn for some kind of support after the success of Braveheart? Braveheart history will ornament the history curriculum in Scottish schools.
Scottish victories over England will be the history curriculums’ main focus, as it has been for Alec Salmond for most of his life. Scottish Nationalism has long suffered from a deep vein thrombosis they believe was inflicted by the old enemy that had led them on a far, far too long journey of bitter disappointment.
Now Scotland has an opportunity to rid itself of English rule and Alec Salmond sees himself as Scottish histories’ prodder. He believes that once Scotland emerges from the gloom of any association with England; he will deliver Scotland into the open arms Europe, where nationhood no longer has any part to play in a United Sates of Europe.
As with Irish nationalism; Scottish nationalism will sell their sovereignty to Europe and become a mere canton within Europe. Which, further down the line, will prompt the question - what was their nationalism all about in the first place?
ALEC SALMOND knows all too well where Scotland is heading, but chooses to play the nationalist card in order to rid Scotland of England beforehand. As a nationalist, Salmond is a fraud. He is as much a part of the Federal European dream as the French and Germans, to name but two.
If Scotland, through the use of nationalist rhetoric, manages to divest itself of any association with England, then Alec Salmond will immediately sell Scotland out to a Greater Europe and gladly see his country reduced to a canton within such a dystopia.
History is a nation’s record and should not be tampered with by politicians who may have a resentment to address, such as Alec Salmond seems to have.
If what we read comes about, then Salmond will have created a very dangerous precedent – one which will confuse the children as they grow up and experience a more rational and objective knowledge of their nation’s past.
Politicians, whether north of the border or south, must be prohibited from altering the history curriculum. If changes are perceived as being needed then be advised by academic historians, whose heads are not polluted either by narrow nationalism or class consciousness.
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