History will always be a dangerous subject
IN 2013 I was lucky enough to be in Edinburgh and decided to attend a debate in the Scottish Parliament.
As it happened, the debate was about the teaching of Scottish History in Scottish schools. I was amused to hear each of the political parties express their views and realised that if I substituted Wales and Welsh for Scotland and Scottish, I could have been in the Welsh Parliament in Cardiff. All the political parties in Scotland were presenting the arguments that their counterparts would express in Cardiff.
There is absolutely no problem with teaching the history of Wales in chronological order. The issues and principals arise in their appropriate places and give a true representation of the evolution of our society. The problem is that a factual history of our country is not acceptable to those who believe that; either we have no history, or that our history presented impartially to our people is so powerful that it would lead to us all becoming nationalists - an opinion expressed by a professor of Welsh history in the 1970s.
The opposite view; that an impartial, factual based history is too biased towards the imperial perspective is also unacceptable.
The truth is that because our teachers have not been taught our history, no one is qualified to teach the subject impartially. Even our university teachers have not been taught an impartial view.
We need to realise that the reason why we are deprived of our history is because the United Kingdom political parties are afraid of the consequences – the break-up of the United Kingdom.
John H. Davies Llandysul, Ceredigion that animals shouldn’t be caged, chained, beaten into submission, and deprived of all that’s natural and important to them for the sake of human amusement. For this reason, animal circuses around the world – as well as other institutions that cruelly imprison animals for entertainment, including SeaWorld and other marine abusement parks – are on the decline, and we’re rejoicing.
Elisa Allen, Director PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Foundation