Bomber Command Memorial damaged again!

Hi All,
I apologise for not replying earlier but have had problems logging in with password and user name bars disappearing..:rolleyes:

In regards to my query as to having these as put back on the curriculum obviously I was wrong to suggest that they where off. I was not blaming the teachers directly but will say that those who may just skirt over the subject teaching what they think is sufficient is definitely not doing the pupils any favours. As the subject is covered in the Key Stage 3 http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-history-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-history-programmes-of-study but is not statutory learning and maybe that is what I was trying to put over in my fumbled attempt at giving a reason for why many do not know or care about such memorials.

If I read the key stages (Above link) it basically allows the teacher to educate and decide what to include in the pupils lessons. I dare say that being as the lessons are crammed to the limit and class room sizes being larger may also add to the lack of coverage ? Yet I am saddened by the apparent lack of trips to visit these memorials possibly due to cost and class sizes ?

Never the less I still think that teaching of war history from start to finish with visits to wherever (Especially war memorials) should be statutory, it is IMPO the only way of getting the pupils to be aware of the lessons that the world was supposed to have learned by all conflict culminating in the two world wars that lead to untold loss of military and civilian along with untold animal life on all sides, sadly it seems that we never do learn these lessons and war carries on…….:(

Geoff.

Before jumping down the necks of persons trying to catch this guy it’s worth bearing in mind the quantity of footage in the vicinity that Police would need to have viewed in order to have produced that one, rather unhelpful image. By having their hands forced to show that best image, shows how easy it is to thwart recognition by just covering up, along with the obvious flaw of how little good imagery there is in central London. It’s not exactly like Bourne Identity is it? I think this image may not help prevent further attacks. (I’d like to think there are several really good high Def images that they would never be able to publicly expose – if you follow my drift)

From that ‘Metro’ article it does seem somewhat more of a ‘targeted’ act rather than a random act of vandalism; not sure I understand the vandalism of the memorial to Yvonne Fletcher though? That seems particularly disrespectful (even in a spree of disrespectful vandalism like this). I notice from the website that the ‘Metro’ seems to be rapidly spiralling down the route of lowest-common-denominator tabloid ‘journalism’ then!

Meddle, I detect thinly veiled sarcasm – the desecration of these memorials is not “hilarious”. The Marines do not think it is hilarious. Plod seems to have been sitting on the CCTV footage rather than publish it and say “Do You Know This Person?” until today when public outcry forced their hand (“we don’t want to jeopardise our investigation” – oh yeah…) I don’t follow Twitter so the rubbish I posted isn’t a copy and paste – I saw a piece online by a former Marine – I don’t doubt they would probably do a better job than the feckless Met…. And I hope the total **** responsible is seriously kacking himself for a really long time…

Turns out it may not have been a group of school aged vandals. https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2019/01/24/hunt-man-caught-cctv-vandalising-londons-war-memorials-8388361/amp/

“they better hope that Plod gets to them before the Marines do….” That is hilarious. I’ve seen the same rubbish on Twitter today. I’m sure there are marines working on this case as we speak.

Worth noting that several other monuments were targeted in the same way. There seems to be a political element, rather than just mindless bored kids?

They hit the Royal Marines Memorial too – they better hope that Plod gets to them before the Marines do….

I doubt the perpetrators were ignorant of WWII history.
Looking at the UK as an outsider (albeit a former resident, frequent visitor and being married to be UK citizen/military veteran) I can’t think of another country that is so WWII -centric.

If nothing else, every year brings a slew of major films set in the war. Even if the vandals were asleep (or absent) from history class, they can’t help knowing something about the war and Britain’s role in it.

Many schools cover World War II as part of their local history provisions under the National Curriculum, I have just finished an email to a teacher in Nottingham about such an education session that I will hopefully be delivering to two year 5 classes in early April. You would be surprised by the knowledge and respect that many younger people have for the topic and the people that it helps to remember.

I’d like to point out that recent history is indeed taught at school: my son’s two girls are both/have both received good tuition on subjects as diverse as the Weimar republic and life in the trenches. They are both in their teens and both show a deep interest in our recent history. Eldest girl has even joined the CCF.

So let’s not put the blame on teachers or the education system: there can be no excuse for this sort of disrespectful and idiotic behaviour. I do hope the culprits are caught and made to do community service with those who served.

And those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. when l was in school history was required,, I didnt have the luxury of picking and choosing my curriculum.

Hi All,
Wouldn’t teaching about WWII and other wars with visits to war memorials be put back into the curriculum on a full time basis starting with junior schools be a good idea ? I say this as I spoke about this very subject to my wife today as it was in the newspapers, she said today History is a choice subject and not mainstream lesson…..:eek:

Geoff.

You can’t fix stupid … but you can gag it with duct tape so it doesn’t make any annoying sounds.

Absolutely zero respect shown by these vandals, vandalising a memorial to service persons who died for the very freedom these little s***s live under. Should be rounded up and shown some genuine old school military hardship!

They are pathetic little nobodies.

It is sadly becoming a cliche to have to say that there are some very misguided idiots amongst us. I can’t even imagine what the people who do such things are hoping to achieve.