[letmein]

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, says that children should be taught how the British Empire expanded 'at the expense of people'

Every child should be taught about the negative impact and suffering caused by the British Empire, Jeremy Corbyn has suggested.

Mr Corbyn told young Labour supporters that the national curriculum should be re-written to teach children about how the Empire expanded "at the expense of people".

He also suggested that the curriculum should be changed so that every child should be taught about the importance of the trade unions, his biggest backers.


He said: "Perhaps we could do a little bit more about how history is taught in our schools.

"Of course the history of European expansion is important, but there are two other things that need to be added to that.

"One is the expansion of one empire at the expense of people where that empire is expanding.

"You need to get the story from the people where that empire is expanding into rather than those that came there to take control of it."

It came after Mr Corbyn earlier suggested that that Trotskyists and communists are welcome in the Labour Party as long as they accept its values.
"

Children should be taught about how people around the World suffered because of the rise of the British Empire, Jeremy Corbyn has suggested.
The Labour leader told an audience of young supporters that he would like to see the national curriculum re-written to take into account the damaging impacts of British imperialism such as the slave trade.

He also suggested that the history curriculum should be changed so that every child should be taught about the importance of the trade unions, his biggest backers.

It came after Mr Corbyn suggested that Trotskyists and Communists are welcome in the Labour party and would not be thrown out as long as they accepted its values.

In a BBC interview on the eve of the party conference in Brighton, he was asked by presenter Andrew Marr: “Thirty years ago almost to the day, just down the coast, Neil Kinnock kicked out the Trotskyists and the Communists from the Labour Party. Are they welcome back in again?”

Mr Corbyn replied: “Anyone is welcome to join the Labour Party providing they support the principles of the party and be content with that.

“And thousands have joined the Labour Party in the last few weeks. Fifty thousand, maybe 60,000 have joined since I was elected two weeks ago, 150,000 have joined since the General Election. This is a growing, enthusiastic, optimistic party.”


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...rbyn-says.html

[Niamh.]

Funnily enough the vast majority of Irish history revolves around us fighting the British empire and trying to get our country back

[jennyjuniper]

He should also mention that when the British left India the nation split in two and have been murdering each other ever since.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by jennyjuniper

He should also mention that when the British left India the nation split in two and have been murdering each other ever since.

So those Indians should have been grateful that the British took them over in the first place? ummm

[Kizzy]

bang on Corbyn, what made Britain 'great' was murder.

[user104658]

They should be taught the philosophy of morality and abstract thought, and then taught history as accurately as possible without judgement or bias, and be given the chance to form their own conclusions. This should apply in every country.

Unfortunately, those things won't happen. Kids are taught rigid, formulaic thinking alongside a version of history tailored to whichever country they happen to be learning it in.

[jennyjuniper]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

So those Indians should have been grateful that the British took them over in the first place? ummm

Not necessarily. I'm just pointing out that there are two sides to a story.
Also if children are being taught about the 'evils of empire', they should also be taught the good things that Britain has acheived. Give them some pride in their own country. As it is Corbyn and his ilk are the ones who want us to wear the welcome mats for the world to wipe it's feet on.

[joeysteele]

I don't know if there is much merit in teaching this to children now, however to build that empire some really horrible atrocities were carried out across the Globe.

It is part of history however and the building of the Empire should not just be a glossy mag full of so called good bits in its presentation of same..

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by jennyjuniper

Not necessarily. I'm just pointing out that there are two sides to a story.
Also if children are being taught about the 'evils of empire', they should also be taught the good things that Britain has acheived. Give them some pride in their own country. As it is Corbyn and his ilk are the ones who want us to wear the welcome mats for the world to wipe it's feet on.

How is that a second side to the story?

[Tom4784]

I'm all for it. The Empire was built on the blood of innocents. We shouldn't withhold the truth because it's ugly.

[Shaun]

I don't see the contention... empires have always committed genocide, rape, plundering and slavery. Some still are. Teaching the reality of history is...well...that's what teaching is supposed to be, right?

Being aware of your country's past atrocities =/= being ashamed of what it's like today. I dare say the majority of people who hate on traits of modern Britain are usually the ones complaining about a lack of patriotic pride.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

Funnily enough the vast majority of Irish history revolves around us fighting the British empire and trying to get our country back

Fair enough but isn't it time we moved on, teaching history is fine but it's history, I remember my grandmother actually hating the English with a passion as her brother had been shot by the Black and Tans, her son went on to marry an English girl and in her later years she relented her position. If we continue to have hang ups based on history we will never move forward, I'd hate to be an Italian on Norwegian as the Romans and the Vikings have a lot to answer for Should the current English generations hang their head in shame for their colonial past..no, did the British people have any say when Tony Blair took us into Iraq or Cameron involved us in Syria?

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Cherie

Fair enough but isn't it time we moved on, teaching history is fine but it's history, I remember my grandmother actually hating the English with a passion as her brother had been shot by the Black and Tans, her son went on to marry an English girl and in her later years she relented her position. If we continue to have hang ups based on history we will never move forward, I'd hate to be an Italian on Norwegian as the Romans and the Vikings have a lot to answer for Should the current English generations hang their head in shame for their colonial past..no, did the British people have any say when Tony Blair took us into Iraq or Cameron involved us in Syria?

Who said anything about having hang ups about it. I just said it should be taught as it is a part of their history

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Cherie

Fair enough but isn't it time we moved on, teaching history is fine but it's history, I remember my grandmother actually hating the English with a passion as her brother had been shot by the Black and Tans, her son went on to marry an English girl and in her later years she relented her position. If we continue to have hang ups based on history we will never move forward, I'd hate to be an Italian on Norwegian as the Romans and the Vikings have a lot to answer for Should the current English generations hang their head in shame for their colonial past..no, did the British people have any say when Tony Blair took us into Iraq or Cameron involved us in Syria?

Nobody is suggesting they should, To simply be made aware and acknowledge our history shouldn't be that contentious an issue, unless it's felt that we may from it be perceived in a less than perfect light.
As we know it's every other country that are grasping marauding usurpers... not us.

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

Who said anything about having hang ups about it. I just said it should be taught as it is a part of their history

Corbyn is hung up in it, I'm biased as I hated Irish history in school

Originally Posted by Kizzy

Nobody is suggesting they should, To simply be made aware and acknowledge our history shouldn't be that contentious an issue, unless it's felt that we may from it be perceived in a less than perfect light.
As we know it's every other country that are grasping marauding usurpers... not us.

Pretty sure some areas of the history curriculum must touch on it

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Cherie

Corbyn is hung up in it, I'm biased as I hated Irish history in school



Pretty sure some areas of the history curriculum must touch on it

That's because it was so depressing and you know who's fault that is

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

That's because it was so depressing and you know who's fault that is

That is so true, those awful Sasanachs

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Cherie

That is so true, those awful Sasanachs

[the truth]

the funny thing is the empire was built on nothing so exciting or headline grabbing, the empire was built on the industrial revolution, namely cannonballs , copper and coal....the copper at the bottom of our ships made british ships unsinkable...67% of the worlds copper was produced in Swansea. the welsh were the only people who could produce pure copper as they had been making it for 4000 years at the great orme in Llandudno north wales , a wonderful place well worth a visit. I guarantee you less than 1% of brits even know that, our ignorance is staggering and is perpetuated by our elitist education system

[Kizzy]

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/histo...nt_day_1_3_1_3

The syllabus has changed, I hope the information is presented in context.

[Tom4784]

I can't remember being taught anything that painted the Empire in a bad light, hell I wasn't really aware that we were involved in the slave trade until I looked it up after watching 12 years a Slave.

I can only hope that the History syllabus has become more balanced since I was in School.

[lostalex]

The British empire was a million times worse than Slavery in America or The German Nazi holocaust. of course it should be taught to children for what it was... a complete humanitarian disaster.

[DemolitionRed]

I did some of my education in the French school system where we were taught that the French won the war (virtually single handedly) and that the Brits were supposed to be our allies but dropped more bombs on French civilians than the Germans ever did.

One of my closest friends was educated in the US and she was taught to believe that America won the 2nd world war and stopped the German invasion into the UK.

History is scewed by each and every country. The only exception is probably 'former' west Germany.

I was never taught about the former white slave ships that enslaved thousands of Irish people or the blood on our hands when forming the British Empire.

History is important when we can learn valuable lessons from it.

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by DemolitionRed

I did some of my education in the French school system where we were taught that the French won the war (virtually single handedly) and that the Brits were supposed to be our allies but dropped more bombs on French civilians than the Germans ever did.

One of my closest friends was educated in the US and she was taught to believe that America won the 2nd world war and stopped the German invasion into the UK.

History is scewed by each and every country. The only exception is probably 'former' west Germany.

I was never taught about the former white slave ships that enslaved thousands of Irish people or the blood on our hands when forming the British Empire.

History is important when we can learn valuable lessons from it.

America did protect the UK from German invasion, and just as importantly stopped a complete Russian/Soviet invasion of western Europe. America really did singularly save the world in WW2. that's a fact.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

I can't remember being taught anything that painted the Empire in a bad light, hell I wasn't really aware that we were involved in the slave trade until I looked it up after watching 12 years a Slave.

I can only hope that the History syllabus has become more balanced since I was in School.

Did you know that an estimated 1 million Irish people died and another million left Ireland during the Irish Potato Famine and all the while that this was happening food was being shipped from Ireland to England under military guard