castle-medieval.jpg Ofsted have advised that the study of history in UK schools is shunned. Up to 70% of pupils drop the subject before GCSE. Further, it is a trend that has been gathering steam for some time.
Hence, the previous generation also shunned history, resulting in a new generation of teachers who discarded the subject before age 14. As such, even those kids who are interested in history can have teachers without the ability to teach it.

Britain’s Past

Why have we got to this state of affairs? Why is history seen as such as bore? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that we’re told we should be a forward-looking country, rather than wallowing in the past.
As to that past, political correctness has labeled it as the world of arrogant, nasty Brits stomping all over the world, creating empires and oppression. This may be right, to a point, but if the UK was that bad, why do most of the former colonies volunteer to be in the Commonwealth?

The reality is …

Yes, much nastiness occurred in the past, and it applies to more countries than the UK. But rarely is it pointed out that Britain is also responsible for modern democracy, the presumption of innocence, capitalism, and most of the other benefits the modern world enjoys.
History is perhaps shunned most of all because of the hatred of the British past by a liberal elite who think that all good stems from them. This is incorrect. Why, even legalization of homosexuality and equal rights for women came before ‘political correctness’ was invented.

© Anthony North, July 2007

Have you clicked Diary of a Writer on Blogroll? Meet me, up close and personal.
Click Tony On, on Blogroll, for my current affairs blog.