I HAVE a history of calling out nationalism in education, as do many progressives. Our children deserve better. They are global citizens growing up in an interconnected world. Narrow nationalist ideas and parochial power-games have no place in the classrooms. We need to expand children’s view of the world, not reduce it to the toxic tribalism which ripped the world apart in two world wars and continues to create artificial tensions alongside the hollowing out of debate.
The issue of nationalism in the curriculum reared its head again recently – even when schools were on summer holidays. The release of a FOI to Scottish Government revealed numerous edits called for by Scottish civil servants in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee school textbooks. These books were to be freely printed, distributed and available to every UK school child. Uptake of the books in Scotland had been particularly patchy. Schools did not get them as a matter of due course but had to request them. Few schools did it seemed in some areas. Some areas only got copies of the books upon nudging about them being available.
