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HISTORY | FILM | EDUCATION
The Magic and Mystery of Ancient Britain
‘Standing With Stones: an epic journey through Prehistoric Britain’
It is important to read and know history. It shows the genesis of the world and its people. It tells us about the great movements of people across the world and the story of our identity.
But now, politics and politicians control history, or the version of history that they want the masses to know. They decide what should be taught to impressionable students in schools, colleges and at universities. Depending on how insecure they feel, they wipe out whole chunks of the past from textbooks and syllabi.
Fortunately for me, I retired before this form of “intellectual purging” began. So I could teach my students what I knew of history. Because everything is connected to history. If I am teaching English, I need to know where the words came from. I need to tell students about the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes, the Picts, the Normans and the Vikings.
I need to be able to tell them that because the peasants who laboured in the farm and the fields were English, but the lords in the manor spoke French, there are different names for the animal and its meat. Which is why “sheep,” “cow,” “pig” and “deer” have English roots, but…
