(https://inredcoatragsattired.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/levellers-2016.jpg?w=400)
May 17th is Levellers Day and I put a short post up on my blog about it:
https://inredcoatragsattired.com/2016/05/14/levellers-day-2016/
I'm curious if this is a day that is well remembered in the UK or does it occasionally just get a passing reference?
I know that there is an active forum member who uses the Leveller as part of the screen name - so at least one other person remembers.
Hopefully this is not currently some "hot button" issue and I am descending into the realm of forbidden politics! If so please ignore. :)
I'm aware of the Levellers and of the executions but had no idea there was a Leveller's Day. There again, why not. After all, today (15th May) is National Chocolate Chip Day and the day before was National Dance Like A Chicken Day.
These humans are weird!
I will never forget my wedding anniversary, because it's the day after Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Cheers, Martyn
--
Oh ARGGGGH
IanS
I would guess that 99% of the UK population wouldn't have a
clue who the Levellers were (although some will have a vague
recollection of the 1980's band of the same name). There is
certainly no celebration of 'Levellers Day'...
The only reason I have even heard of them is an interest in the
English Civil War / New Model Army.
Just another blip in history known to a few (similar to the Peasants'
Revolt).
However, it is a another good example why wargaming broadens
the mind (as well as emptying the pocket and devouring your time) !!
All the best,
Phil
(http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/philosophy/history/learning_from_history.jpg)
I've heard that they had spirit
I know full well about the Levellers, but then my politics are often said to be to the left of Trotsky! I have seen the band three times!
They gave us smooth roads.
Quote from: Leman on 15 May 2016, 06:21:15 PM
They gave us smooth roads.
We could do with them in NZ then :-)
Cheers
Ian
I always thought they got the air time NMA really deserved but were just too radical for. Mind, they put on a cracking festival down at Beautiful Days, and did a cracking job on Re. Hammer's debut album.
I'll sing some properly patriotic songs tomorrow mind, for the original Levellers :)
Most people in the UK [the English] won't even know that England was invaded in 1066. Won't know that there was a Civil War and we cut off our King's head. And will think Churchill is a toy Bulldog that appears on a TV advert for cheap car insurance.
That Waterloo is a song by Abba and that a bridge in London was probably named after it. Nelson's Column, in Trafalgar Square, is just somewhere to meet and to take a photo-selfie, but not have a clue as to why they're named so. Hack Wikipedia and write that Adolf Hitler was the first man on the Moon, in 1976, he then went on to have a movie career and single-handedly rowed across the Pacific Ocean in 11 days, the majority of young people today would believe you.
Ask 100 people who the Levellers were and at least 95 of them wouldn't know. But, to be fair, it is a bit of obscure history when taken into consideration that we have 2000+ years of UK history. And then if the person asked, their heritage isn't UK based, they're even less likely to know.
In comparison, I'd say that the Scottish public will be more likely to be aware of their own history. I don't know about the Welsh, as the ties to England have bound them far longer. Northern Ireland I couldn't really say.
Nah, they'll know that Churchill (and Hitler), he beat the Nazi's just we'll be beating the EU, flags and queens and rascism ahoy! Or am I cynical. Now, John Churchill, maybe not...
Come on Roy, unless somethings changed in the last four years then British (as opposed to English) History is well taught in our primary and secondary schools, covering everything from the Celtic migrations to the retreat from empire. Admittedly it does tend to be British history to the end of year 9 and becomes more international for GCSE. However at the back end of Y9 I was teaching Russian Revolution,Interwar recession and recovery, Jarrow March, Irish Civil War, rise of Nazism. move for independence in India, WWII, Cuba, Vietnam, collapse of European communism, the development of the EU, changing role of women in British society. Most of this was from the February half term so there was an awful lot to get in, but if kids don't know about stuff it is usually not because it isn't taught but because they're just not arsed.
I demand you cover 2000 years of local and world history from all angles and points of view, in a balanced and objective manner, and do so within a dozen 45 minute lessons!
Get cracking!
I'll be over here setting the other unreachable targets for the school to be sold off when you don't hit them.
We do have rather a lot of history to cover. There are all sorts of little niches that get downplayed - the Peasants' Revolt, King Aethelstan, the War of Jenkin's Ear.
I doubt anyone but we history buffs take in significant portions, and must confess there are huge chunks of social history that pass me by.
Quote from: toxicpixie on 16 May 2016, 11:48:20 AM
I demand you cover 2000 years of local and world history from all angles and points of view, in a balanced and objective manner, and do so within a dozen 45 minute lessons!
What about the other 4000 or so? Slacker! ;)
Don't count, not British enough. You some kind of leftie revisionist, Ithoriel? You'll be on a watch list, mark my words...
Apologies Leman.
I can see that I may have sounded like I was blaming the teaching profession, or the syllabus. That wasn't my intention.
Yes, I've just, in fact, looked at my old schools -
They've listed the History courses as thus
Primary Education
Year 1
Local History Study
Year 2
The Great Fire of London
Famous People including Florence Nightingale
Year 3
Britain since the Stone Age (Neolithic Age)
Historical Disasters
The Romans
Year 4
Anglo Saxons, Scots & Vikings
Local History Study
Year 5
British History
Ancient Egypt
Year 6
Mayan Civilization
Ancient Greece
Secondary Education
Year 7
The Roman Empire
The Middle Ages
Local Enquiry – Richmond Castle (That's Richmond, North Yorkshire)
Year 8
The Tudors
The Stuarts
The British Empire
Slavery
Year 9
World War 1
World War 2
The Berlin Wall
& for GCSE, thus
Main Topics
Students follow AQA Modern World History. The syllabus is divided into 3 units:
Unit 1: Medicine Through Time, a Study in Development.
This unit contains three interrelated themes: Disease and Infection, Surgery and Anatomy and Public Health. The section on Disease and Infection emphasises changing ideas and practises in the cause, prevention and cure of diseases and infection. In Surgery and Anatomy there is a concentration on the changes in the understanding of anatomy and the practise of surgery. In Public Health there is a focus on Britain, the emphasis is on the changing role of Government, both local and national, in providing health facilities for the people. The unit covers the main changes from prehistoric times until the current day. Students will analyse and explain the following factors: war, superstition and religion, chance, government, science and technology and the role of the individual in helping or hindering change.
Unit 2: Germany, 1919-1945, an Enquiry in Depth.
Students focus on the growth of Nazism in Germany from 1918-1945. They look at the birth of the Weimar Republic following the Versailles Treaty and how civil unrest and economic and political instability led to the birth of the Nazi Party. This is developed further by looking in depth at the leadership of the party, Nazi views on specific social groups and their preparation and action in the 2nd World War.
Unit 3: Historical Enquiry, History Around Us.
This is the controlled assessment element of the course where two questions are asked about a local site, Richmond Castle, and how it has developed during the Middle Ages. Students are required to show independent research of the period and site to submit two structured answers under controlled conditions.
Those not familiar with British education, the above covers the compulsory schooling up to 15-16 years of age (GCSE being an optional subject for examination). Further education, after age 15-16, is optional and dependant upon exam results.
I'm obviously around the same age as you as that was the syllabus I followed.
My kids at primary now are pretty much doing the same thing.
My eldest is just doing her GCSE's didn't take history (didn't fancy learning the cold war) but she told me how she learnt that the 1st world war would have been avoided if a guy (who she couldn't remember the name of) had decided not to go out for a sandwich that day.... :-\
Quote from: toxicpixie on 16 May 2016, 11:48:20 AM
I demand you cover 2000 years of local and world history from all angles and points of view, in a balanced and objective manner, and do so within a dozen 45 minute lessons!
Get cracking!
I'll be over here setting the other unreachable targets for the school to be sold off when you don't hit them.
Tooi late, it was sold off and demolished in 2012.
Yes, I AM bitter as f**k!
You mean it wasn't turned into a revenue machine with crippling debt and used to fund Daves' Mates' disappearing pension plans by sucking tax money out the economy?! They missed a trick there!
Slackers.
I'm so old that in my day The Roman Invasion of Britain was Modern Studies :)
Hi
My son, Jack, is in year six and did the Greeks in year 2 or 3. One of the highlights for me was going in to school to watch him and his entire class (girls and boys) wearing helmets and shields made out of cardboard and with lengths of wood (which may have been broom handles) acting as spears doing close order phalanx drill. All seemed to love it. At the time they were learning about the battle of Thermopylae. He was lucky at the time to have a very inspiring teacher who sadly left the profession a couple of years ago due to the way teaching of our young appeared to be going under the current government. :(
Cheers Paul
Quote from: Ithoriel on 16 May 2016, 12:41:06 PM
What about the other 4000 or so? Slacker! ;)
Much of that is pre-history, is it not? Writing came on the scene fairly late.
Quote from: FierceKitty on 16 May 2016, 11:06:10 PM
Much of that is pre-history, is it not? Writing came on the scene fairly late.
Writing (as opposed to proto-writing) started somewhere in the 35th Century BCE so I guess we can let them off with five centuries :)
So if I understand the discussion so far there will not be hordes of people in the UK wearing sea green ribbons today. :)
Maybe a Levellers Tshirt (the band that is)
Today, I shall mostly be listening to music. Should slip nicely to "World turned upside down" as well :D
And the second one down...
http://revhammer.com/listen.htm (http://revhammer.com/listen.htm)
Quote from: d_Guy on 17 May 2016, 02:35:55 AM
So if I understand the discussion so far there will not be hordes of people in the UK wearing sea green ribbons today. :)
Depends on if the Green Party is canvassing an areas for votes ... and they get mistaken for celebrating Levellers Day.
Toxic,
Thanks for those links (have also sent them on to one or two of my "Digger" friends).
Watched a brief documenry on Rev. hammer and Free Born John lives - plan to watch the whole think - thanks!
Quote from: RoyWilliamson on 17 May 2016, 08:41:34 AM
Depends on if the Green Party is canvassing an areas for votes ... and they get mistaken for celebrating Levellers Day.
;D the "Greens" ARE probably "Diggers" at the heart of it ( just may not know it).
Pleasure!
I've been of the Hammer since my first Uni days; a crusty friend mentioned I might like to see him in concert as he was playing my home town the day after a Kingmaker gig we went to (they were a very average indie act and disappeared, but their support were a little known band called Radiohead!), and I was hooked ever after :D
He's an integral part of Red Sky Coven as well, who are on a mission to put the FUN back into FOLK :)
I really need a copy of the "Green Fool Recordings", as I lent mine to a mate years ago and haven't seen them since :(
Since there was a detailed discussion about what comprises the history that should be taught - and I am impressed by the number of history teachers present - let me pose another question.
Where does any NATION'S history begin? For example growing up in the US in the 1950's we where taught a substantial (if cursory) portion of English (read British) history BECAUSE it was considered our history also.
Sorry - in a contemplative mood as I celebrate Levellers Day by drinking green tea and considering the Bill of Rights (yours and ours) :)
British History, that's easy: Late Summer 55BC when Caesar bodges his first invasion.
Well, that's when written history begins, at least in the UK, other parts of Europe, earlier or later, depending on whose account survives!
Quote from: d_Guy on 17 May 2016, 03:00:36 PM
Where does any NATION'S history begin?
I think you could ask 100 different people from the same 'nation' and get 100 different answers. ;)
As Will says.....As far as written history goes......
Cheers - Phil