The cultural imperialists have struck again. The idea of a National Songbook of 30 songs all primary school children could sing from has been abandoned. You may be unsurprised - after all, thirty songs is very few for an eleven year old to know and sing, but that is not the reason. No agreement could be reached because there is no agreement on our culture of song.
There is no agreement on our literary culture either, so no body of poems and prose writing is offered as a secure base for enjoying and understanding English culture. English history? Well, no, not that either. Particularly not that.
These are small children who need to make sense of the world immediately around them; and they are in England. To deny them the keys to English culture is to exclude them, deprive them, impoverish their development and life chances. That is true for all the children not just those with other cultures and other countries upon which they draw for part of their identity. No-one denies the importance of the language and culture of a family's country of origin. I expended years and continental shifts in ensuring the children acquired fully the cultures into which they are born. As do many, many Anglo-something families.
Undeniably there are culture clashes. The First World War viewed through Italian eyes is not a blood and mud bath in Flanders, and its consequences were wholly different from its English consequences. But these are clashes that occur after primary years, when young students begin to realise the complexities of learning and knowing.
It should be acceptable for little ones in schools to sing the local songs - plus Waltzing Matilda and Kumbaya of course.
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2 comments:
Never mind Little Men:
Hills of the North, rejoice!
All Things Bright And Beautiful (with possibly a little editing of the "poor man at his gate" bit)
There is now a song bank under discussion S. I thought Cecil Sharp House was that.
What would be the point of teaching children in an English primary school:
Il trionfo di Bacco e Arianna ? Or The Ash Grove to children in a Florence scuola elementare. The reference is too complex and too remote.
Yet one line , any line, of il Trionfo remarked to a passer by in a Florence street would get the response 'di doman' non c'e' certezza' and a smile.
The trouble with culture is it is specific and like oil and water, doesn't mix, (unless you beat it into an emulsion, which is a different thing entirely).
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