News 2020
It isn't true yet, but it will be
Education may be over-rated, according to a new study by the Institute of Historical Studies, a government-sponsored foundation set up to "keep alive the memory of the many glorious moments in British history, including specifically the victories of 1918, 1945 and 1966".
The new report was commissioned by the Department of Education and Human Resource Maturation, which is trying to determine the extent to which the study of history should be subsidised by the taxpayer.
"The extent to which the lessons of history have ever been learned at all is controversial," said IHS Research Fellow Vesta Knibley. "The obvious case is the Second World War, where aside from a few exceptions such as Margaret Thatcher, the lesson Never trust a kraut has been forgotten throughout Europe within a few years of Britain's victory."
The new report goes much further than this, however. Noting the robustness of so-called popular culture and the ephemerality of what are called "educated" ideas, it calls for the government to withdraw entirely from providing the "luxury" of education and concentrate instead on funding training for job interview skills from the age of five and upwards.
"You only have to look at the historical record to see the sense of it," Ms Knibley said. "In ancient Rome, for instance, the so-called educated class believed in a lot of mystery cults which have been extinct for centuries now - Marcus Aurelius and things like that. The common people, with no government-subsidised university packages, believed in things like astrology and Christianity, which are still with us today."
Education may be over-rated, according to a new study by the Institute of Historical Studies, a government-sponsored foundation set up to "keep alive the memory of the many glorious moments in British history, including specifically the victories of 1918, 1945 and 1966".
The new report was commissioned by the Department of Education and Human Resource Maturation, which is trying to determine the extent to which the study of history should be subsidised by the taxpayer.
"The extent to which the lessons of history have ever been learned at all is controversial," said IHS Research Fellow Vesta Knibley. "The obvious case is the Second World War, where aside from a few exceptions such as Margaret Thatcher, the lesson Never trust a kraut has been forgotten throughout Europe within a few years of Britain's victory."
The new report goes much further than this, however. Noting the robustness of so-called popular culture and the ephemerality of what are called "educated" ideas, it calls for the government to withdraw entirely from providing the "luxury" of education and concentrate instead on funding training for job interview skills from the age of five and upwards.
"You only have to look at the historical record to see the sense of it," Ms Knibley said. "In ancient Rome, for instance, the so-called educated class believed in a lot of mystery cults which have been extinct for centuries now - Marcus Aurelius and things like that. The common people, with no government-subsidised university packages, believed in things like astrology and Christianity, which are still with us today."
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