ARmy Rumour SErvice

I'm glad! You find! Such excitement in history!

Would that we all did

I think you may have misinterpreted what I wrote. Concentration "KZ" camps littered "Greater Germany" at the height of its expansion - there were HUNDREDS of them. But there were a bare handful of DEATH CAMPS - camps whose ONLY intended product was corpses. That The UK used internment camps (and called 'em "Concentration Camps") during the Boer War is hardly more than a semi-relevant coincidence. The seeds of WW2 were planted in fertile soil by a combination of (on the one hand) the German Imperial staff's choice to bamboozle its own soldiers right up to the end of the war with the idea that they were poised on the brink of victory and (on the other hand) The imposition of the Versailles Treaty, which pretty much everybody later came to see as an unjust settlement. Throw in the Bolshevik revolution, which spilled over into Germany and resulted in a brief (but vicious) civil war... also throw in large-scale corruption by the "Moderates", leading to polarization of German politics with a discredited centre... and you wind up with a situation where WW2 (at least in Europe) is all but inevitable. We choose to ignore much of this, and present WW2 as "a struggle between heroic figures". But waves attract surfers - surfers don't attract waves. If Hitler and Churchill hadn't existed, someone else would have filled their roles - possibly better, possibly worse.

Originally Posted by ex_colonial

It was NOT a deliberate policy of extermination
...
Yes deaths did occur, mainly due to disease caused by poor sanitary conditions and some failures to provide sufficient food stuffs & medecine!

Surely the failure to provide proper sanitation, sufficient food, appropriate accomodation & medicine demonstrates an intent to cause death even though it wasn't deliberate policy - at best an indifferent attitude as to whether they lived or died.

Q

Originally Posted by BigRonW

One of the problems faced when "teaching history" is what "history" IS. English historians form two schools of thought - the "Whig" school and the "Tory" school. One side says that "history is the story of great men", the other says that "History is the story of great EVENTS, which (coincidentally) make celebrities out of some men". .............................If we started teaching history from the Whig viewpoint, and not the Tory one... the howls of outrage would be even louder.

We were discussing the teaching of history rather than history as a subject. You are right that there are different schools of thought. There were also Marxist historians as well.

One thing that has impressed me about the current history curriculum is the emphasis on learning the skills of the historian, interpreting sources, causality and chronology. These have value beyond knowing which king did what or what it was like to be a weaver in 18th Century. Military history is said to only have value when it is applied to contemporary problems. Understanding how to interpret sources and the patterns of the wars of the C20th isn't a bad background for the citizens of a democracy. Deciding whether to send other people's children to war is one of the bigger decisions school leavers will make.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Surely the failure to provide proper sanitation, sufficient food, appropriate accomodation & medicine demonstrates an intent to cause death even though it wasn't deliberate policy - at best an indifferent attitude as to whether they lived or died.

Q

We are talking about the end of the 19th C & beginning of the 20th C, when people were routinely dying of malnutrition & epidemics of diseases like smallpox, typhoid & cholera in the UK, dont forget also that nearly twice as many British troops died of disease during the Boer war than were killed in action!!!! :- The Boer War

Don't forget to teach them about Nelson Mandela!

Assemblies

Originally Posted by ex_colonial

We are talking about the end of the 19th C & beginning of the 20th C, when people were routinely dying of malnutrition & epidemics of diseases like smallpox, typhoid & cholera in the UK, dont forget also that nearly twice as many British troops died of disease during the Boer war than were killed in action!!!! :- The Boer War

Fair point, but the rate at which they did die in the camps was a great dealer higher than they would have done in their home environment. I read that the scale of the 27,000 Afrikaners that died in the camps, in percentage terms of their population at the time, was on par with the holocaust.

...not forgetting the 15,000 black farm labourers that died in camps which were even worse.

Q

Originally Posted by sunoficarus

Assemblies

As this site includes this:

D Day

This Y7-Y11 assembly looks at the historical importance and significance of D-Day, June 6, 1944, and the human cost behind this key event of the Second World War. It seeks to point out the qualities of responsibility and commitment demonstrated by those involved - qualities which are worth emulating. The assembly aims:

to increase students' awareness of the historical importance and significance of D-Day

to encourage students to consider and value the responsibility and commitment shown by those involved

And this:

Remembrance Day

This whole-school assembly encourages pupils to learn about Remembrance Day and the symbolism associated with it. Children should:

learn that symbols such as the poppy represent a major commemorative event

be aware that commemorations (such as Remembrance Day) are linked to specific events in the past, which really happened

be aware that some historic events (such as Remembrance Day) are commemorated by pageantry or celebrations that usually take the same form every year

And this:

St George's Day

This assembly is designed to teach children about the legend of St George. It aims to explain:

why many English people celebrate Saint George's Day every year

why this day continues to be important

What's the problem?

OK it's all a bit wishy-washy, but it includes all the major religious festivals (including Christianity) which is only fair. I know MasterPlume had a fabulous time in his reception class when they made Divali lamps & his enthusiasm (when expressed to a waiter in the curry house) got us free poppadums

I’m less excited about all the World-“X” and World-“Y” days, am ambivalent about Martin Luther King/Nelson Mandela, but think learning about Ghandi is a pretty good thing. By no means do all of these actually have to be used – they are merely suggestions for getting kids to think.

As for the language used, again wishy washy but have you ever read how courses and ispecs are articulated under the systems approach to training?