June 15, 2007
There are two ways to destroy a nation: one is from without by military force. The other is from within when its citizens forget why they exist and begin dismantling their culture, language and history.
The latter is what is happening in the once United Kingdom, from which I have just returned. Public schools there are teaching trendy things in science, history literature and foreign languages in hopes of making the subjects more popular. It isn’t working. The subjects are becoming less popular. Students want the real thing.
History is taught with the help of movies like “Lord of the Rings.” Teenagers are being asked to write about September 11th using Arab media reports and speeches by Osama bin Laden. In English, the drive for gender and race equality has led an exam board to produce a list of modern poems from around the world without a single poet from England, or Wales being represented.
Foreign languages have been replaced by a “survival tool kit for a holiday abroad,” according to one report.
Similar things are happening in America, but in Britain they are more advanced. This can only produce national death by suicide.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
