Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
Sorry to correct you Howard but "The World at War", narrated by Lawrence Olivier was about WW2, "The Great War" was the series covering WW1. Sadly a lot of the footage used was, although from the period and used in newsreels at cinemas, re-enacted in England.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
Sadly the fools who dictate which subjects are taught in schools consider it better for pupils to waste their time on fantasy subjects such as environmentalism and climate change amongst other stupid subjects. This at the expense of core subjects useful to getting a job for example. This might help to explain why so many employers complain about the standard of applicants applying for work.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
I do hope what you say there Philip is not the case.
It's hard to believe that anybody can be prepared for today's world in the same way as in times gone by. I think it is exactly the wrong thing to do to train children for the workplace. While this method might have worked when industry was stagnant;I am a miner/seaman/steel worker/ship builder, as my father was and his father before him...and so on. The history of industrial development is littered with fool-things that were said by the then industry giant;I foresee a time when every town will have one. Telephones. No country will be able to function without one or two of these babies. Computers. (I paraphrase)
The simple truth is that we must strive to ensure that all children are adept at the basics, the three 'Rs' and give them practice and a sense of the wider scope to which these simple tools can open the future for them...no matter what the future brings.
If many of today's children fall short on these points we must blame ourselves. It is little better than cowardice to blame the children.
As we are all now familiar with the stark fact that you cannot fatten a pig by weighing it why is it that all we come up with to improve matters is to change the substance in the pan of the balance scale against which achievement is measured?
I seem to remember Ken Clark telling us all that the future for employment in Britain was in the service industries. (sigh!)
You could have been forgiven way back then for calling him ahead of the times with this notion of 'WWW'.
Only his 'www' meant Weeding, Washing and Wiping. No sign of the internet back then either.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
British history starts in Dover, the cradle of British civilization. The oldest port, the oldest place-name.
History should be made interesting. For example, our Bronze Age Boat sailed the seas 750 years before Rome had two huts.
In Skara Brae on the Orkney Islands, in the very north of Britian, there are some stone buildings, including a whole village, that existed thousands of years B.C. and are largely intact.
As the saying goes: from Dover to Skara Brae.
Add to that Dover's Golden Graal, the Ringlemere cup.
As for King Harold at Hastings, if his army hadn't charged down the hill after the Norman cavalry, but had waited half an hour, being October, it would have become dark, and the Normans would have lost the battle.
They'd have had to surrender within days or a few weeks after running out of food.
There was no question of them sailing back to Normandy at that time of year.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
some secendry schools do take years 6 and 7 over to the battlefields of the first world war,some info can be slightly out acordingly by who ever is giving the info.but there is a lot of good books on any of history subjects,either from the libury or any good book shop.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the memory gets blurred chris, do you now who did the voice over for the great war series?
getting back to the subject of education, yes the basics must be taught in order to make our yoof employable but also subjects like history, geography and art help to make a more rounded individual.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
The 'sad' tale of public education is Headline led, it seems. The full story is entirely different as the last letter, from Emeritus professor Michael Bassey, under the link below makes clear...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/nov/24/ofsted-failings-school-inspectionIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
History as a subject in schools should cover a wide area, preferably with teachers with an enthusiasm for the subject, in order to give students a grounding from which they can develop an interest in a range of topics and also other subjects. The climate change debate is a good example as it can spark an interest in sciences not covered in the standard science curriculum.
Alexander's simplification of "the Battle of Hastings" well demonstrates that even history is a changing and developing subject. In the two weeks they were encamped around Hastings the Normans had operated a scorched earth policy, reaching as far as Dover in the East, burning fields of crops and animal fodder in order to avoid the siege scenario Alexander envisages.
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
for me schooling was not the happiest of times, but on history i did enjoy lessons going back to tudor times, and the facination of those times, but having said all that life is full of experiences, and like most posters have said all pupils should have the basics when they leave school, theres a big world out there then where they cn grasp so much more if they wish.
in my lifetime i have certainly leant a lot,
it's up to schools to do there bit, but also down to parents to strive wherever possible to lead there children in the correct direction.
That's rather a simplistic reply, because we also need a major change in public thinking, and how society works.
there is a lot that needs changing in many mindsets before any real benefits are realised.
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS