Scotland's Lost History - Is it Deliberate ?
Since the release of the
film Braveheart in late 1995, the name of Sir William Wallace has been put back
on the lips of the Scottish people. But it has raised many more questions,
particularly over the teaching of history in Scottish schools.
Most Scots
experience of history has been for one or maybe two years at secondary school.
Most have left school after only the briefest of glimpses of Scottish history,
having been taught a decidedly 'British' agenda. There are the odd commendable
exceptions where some individual primary teachers have sought to teach a more
local and Scottish agenda.
But one has to ask - WHY ? Why are
particularly Scottish events not taught to all children in their first and
second years ? Is it because so many of these events are seen by the British
state as being touchstones of nationalism and anti-establishment thought, and
therefore a threat ? Can you imagine American children not being taught about
the Declaration of Independence ?
Yet how many Scottish schoolchildren know about The Declaration of
Arbroath ?
In November 1998 the new Museum of Scotand was opened, to a
background of dissent that 'icons of nationalism' had been deliberately
neutered. No references to Sir William Wallace and the wars forging the
socio-political Scotland (in essence the identity of the Scottish nation
state) of the 13th Century. It may be unfair to suggest a hidden political
agenda in what is an excellent museum, but there are definitely sources within
the British establishment hell bent on a campaign to discredit, neuter and
sanitise the nationalistic elements of Scottish history.
Listed below
are just some of the subjects that have been neglected to varying degrees in
Scottish education.
- Sir William Wallace
- The Wars of Independence
- The Stone of Destiny
- King Robert the Bruce
- 1314 - The Battle of Bannockburn
- 1320 - The Declaration of Arbroath - Freedom and Sovereignty and Democracy
- 1707 - The Treaty of
Union
- The Jacobite Rebellions
- The Highland Clearances
- 1820 - The Radical
Rising
- 1882 - The Crofter's Rebellion
- 1919 - The Red Clydesiders
During research for the film Braveheart, Randall Wallace (the film's
producer) was visiting The Wallace Monument at Elderslie, and happened to speak
to some local youths sitting at the monument. None of them had heard of their
national hero, Sir William Wallace.
Is that not sufficient
testimony that Scottish education is failing in its duty ?
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