80% of the Dutch youth want that the WWII commemorations stay and they also want that the schools pay more attention to WWII. Many scholars also want to talk to somebody who experienced the war. Source: Research by a Dutch Youth Movement by order of the Government. Ron... Very refreshing news to read. Thank you for the post. Regards Tom
Jas, It was debated on an earlier thread started by yours truly. Hope ONE of the Dutchmen comes to the table with some facts and figures. Cheers from the colony, Randy
I have the history book of my 15 years old son, year 3 highschool.. Chapter 1 War and Crisis(WW1) Chapter 2 The second Worldwar Chapter 3 A Communist Power(Sovjet Union) Chapter 4 The cold war Chapter 5 De-colonisation(Dutch colonies) Chapter 6 Holland(About our country) Chapter 7 Politics Chapter 2 contains the paragraphs a: The rise of the National Socialism b: The war itself, form beginning to the end c: Holland and the second worldwar d: Who was Adolf Hitler e: The rise of Japan Hope this helps, ofcourse this book is only for 1 schoolyear, in other years there are other books. Ron
David Cannadine's new book The Right Kind of History brings some welcome empirical evidence (rather than anecdotal presumption) to this important subject. Cannadine: "Complaining about the inadequacy of history teaching in English schools is nothing new: indeed, it has been going on for as long as history has been taught in the classroom, and this means back to the 1900s. So when, these days, Jeremy Paxman deplores the fact that insufficient attention is given in English schools to teaching the history of the British Empire, he is merely repeating (but perhaps does not know he is) a complaint that was made by (among others) Winston Churchill during the Second World War, by King George V in the 1920s, and by Lord Meath, the founder of Empire Day, before 1914. For as long as it has been taught in state schools, history has always been a controversial and contentious subject. There have been those who thought it was taught well, and those who thought it was taught badly. There have been those who wanted a cheerleading narrative of national greatness, and those who wanted a “warts and all” account of the English past. There have been those who wanted to focus on this nation to the exclusion of all others, and those who wanted to situate England’s (or Britain’s) history in a broader global context. There have been those who thought history is primarily about imparting knowledge, and those who thought it is essentially about teaching skills. Most of the arguments that are made today are merely the latest iterations of points that have already been made many times before, yet there is scarcely any awareness that this is so ..." Best, Alan
... Most of the arguments that are made today are merely the latest iterations of points that have already been made many times before, yet there is scarcely any awareness that this is so ..." Or... the subject has not been properly approached despite several calls for attention along quite an extended period of time.
1 schoolyear Ron Ron, thanks for the information. On my original thread, the attachment covers a history course for Grade 10 students. A total of 14 hours is spent covering the period 1929 - 1945. A total of 2.66 hours is spent covering Canada's participation in the second World War. These statistics are a disgrace to those that fought and died for their country. Randy
Having just loaded up my better half with assorted contemporary Local Newspapers, Facsimile Documents, Bomb Maps of the city the Kids live in, and Tank colouring books unsure, I remain entirely sanguine that WW2 continues to crop up in British Primary schools... And I'd remain pretty unconcerned, even if it didn't. People come to their own historical interests, and appreciation of what was done. I've never felt that they are obliged to.
I was also at the Arnhem Oosterbeek Cemetary in early January with my sister-in-law. Upon leaving, we met a Dutch couple and had some very interesting conversations with them. This young lady informed us that when she was a schoolgirl growing up in the town of Arnhem, her class regularly went to the cemetary to clean the headstones. They were apologizing to us for the green lichen on the headstones which obviously had not been cleaned for some time. Also, we noticed that many of the Dutch people we met were still grateful for their liberation by the allies.
In Italy the youngsters are still led to believe that their country was liberated by the partisans. Even with a measly four periods as in Canada they would learn a lot. But then here history is taught by the Italian language teacher .....I could go on about this but won't.
I went to school in the 70's & early 80's. We learned nothing about WW2 in primary school, or at O Level (GCSE). I did a European History course for A Level, which covered the period 1870 - 1945. We covered the causes of WW1 but not the war itself, and similarly we covered the Russian revolution, the rise of Stalin, the rise of the Nazi's and the causes of WW2. There was not supposed to be any coverage of the war itself, but I objected , arguing that as the course covered the period to 1945, not 1939, that we should cover the war itself. The teacher accepted my logic ( I was on good terms with him) but said that as I knew way more about the war than he did I would have to give the class. So I ended up giving a 2 hour overview of WW2. Thankfully it was a small class and everyone in it got on so I wasn't given a hard time.