Diversity in lieu of education

It’s a general rule supported by much empirical evidence. When it comes to schooling, conservatives educate, socialists indoctrinate.

Since socialists are in charge of education in Britain and just about everywhere else in the West, our schools keep churning out ignoramuses who have the hysterical power of their hairbrained convictions.

At least Tory governments try to reverse this tendency, but their attempts are invariably smashed against the stonewall of teachers, unions, pressure groups and school administrators. Most of these were educated at various hatcheries of wokery, to which they pledged lifelong allegiance. They use their strength in numbers and vocal chords to defeat any encroachments on woke probity.

I’m happy to report that this divisive confrontation is now over. Perfect harmony exists between Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and the groups I’ve mentioned. They are prepared to launch their combined assault on what’s left of British education.

To that end, Miss Phillipson has set out to change the national curriculum. She wants to “breathe new life into our outdated curriculum to make it more diverse”. It should reflect “the diversity of our society” and indoctri… sorry, I mean teach, youngsters to “appreciate the diversity of Britain.”

Some subjects, currently “mono-cultural”, are set to be “decolonised” in order to “embed anti-racist and decolonised approaches in the curriculum”. Let’s hear it for the “inclusive curricula that reflect diverse authors, cultures and perspectives.”

As the founder and chairman of the Charles Martel Society for Multiculturalism, I wholeheartedly support this approach to education. Indeed, if our schools can only teach youngsters one thing, it should definitely be how to appreciate and admire the diversity of our society. In fact, that indeed does seem to be the only thing Miss Phillipson would like to teach in her new curriculum.

However, it pains me to say that she has her work cut out for her. For example, it’s not immediately apparent how things like physics or mathematics can be twisted… sorry, I mean improved, in light of the new programme. I have every faith in our educators, and I know they’ll try to do their level best, but the task seems borderline impossible.

Hence the main thrust of new education will be directed against… sorry, I mean at, the humanities, mainly literature and history. The guiding spirit of the drive for diversity is Prof Becky Francis, who in the past criticised the Blair government for “an obsession with academic achievement”.

I couldn’t agree more. Even the Blair-type obsession of this nature runs against the grain of British education. Academic achievement, fancy that. It’s much more important, explain our educators, to steer clear of “traditional” English literature, especially in “majority white” classrooms.

Thanks to the emigration policies of successive governments, such classrooms are becoming exceedingly rare, but – fair enough – a few here and there are still extant. It stands to reason, of course, that those classrooms shouldn’t be allowed to be mired in white complacency. So the first target for re-education has been well spotted.

The Association of School and College Leaders laments that “in particular, ethnicity and sexual orientation are under-represented in the national curriculum”. I share their frustration, but no immediate corrective steps suggest themselves readily.

If American literature has produced quite a few books highlighting ethnicity and, mainly in the 20^th century, sexual orientation, classical British literature is tragically remiss in that area. I suppose hints at fashionable sexuality can be discerned in Oscar Wilde’s works, and perhaps one or two ‘confirmed bachelors’ pop up in other places as well, but none of it is explicit. It’s as if those writers were ashamed when they ought to have been proud.

The situation with ethnicity is even more dire. Classical English writers from Chaucer onwards were unapologetically white people who, as good writers will, described the life they knew. Which is to say the life of white people. Other races hardly ever figure.

Such lackadaisical omissions can be corrected on stage easily enough, by having, say, Hamlet played by a black transsexual woman missing a limb or two. But rewriting the play to make the Prince of Denmark speak in the idiom once popularised by Ali G seems like a tall order.

The five main exam boards of Britain explained that: “The literary canon should better reflect the range of cultures and experiences of all young people.” Splendid idea, that. The trouble is that such a literary canon has so far failed to materialise.

Perhaps members of our educational establishment should put their day jobs on hold and actually produce a canon to satisfy their exacting requirements. As new books and poems are being written, the old literary canon, all those Shakespeares, Keatses and Dickenses, could be squeezed out one by one, until the Great Literary Replacement has been achieved.

However, one has to doubt that such a Herculean feat can be accomplished within the lifespan of this government, even should it have more than one term in office. Still, no harm in trying, a stitch in time and all that.

At least with literature one can see a clear path to improvement in line with the reinforced commitment to “in particular, ethnicity and sexual orientation”. History, on the other hand, can’t by definition “better reflect the range of cultures and experiences of all young people”.

You see, by its very nature, history deals with the past, whereas “all young people” live and acquire their experiences in the present. The present is infinitely more diverse, multicultural, transsexual and generally better than any period in the past, that much goes without saying. Alas, and I don’t know how to put this not to offend anybody, the past stubbornly remains firmly lodged in, well, the past.

I agree that our DEI educators are entitled not only to their own opinions but also to their own facts, but I’m just concerned that, if they rewrite history completely, they’ll undermine their own credibility. They do have plenty of it, credibility, but if it’s undermined, they’ll have less. That saddens me.

To their credit, they don’t give up easily. For example, some history teachers (and a popular TV show) insist that Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of George III and hence a queen of England, was black.

No written or pictorial evidence for this supposition has so far been unearthed, but who’s to say it won’t be in the future? This is a line of thought perfected by Darwinists: yes, they say, the missing link hasn’t yet been found. But it may be found in the future, which means it will be found, which means we can safely assume it has been found.

In a similar vein, King Edward II is always believed to be homo- or bi-sexual, though not yet trans-. James I definitely had a commendable sexual orientation, as any reader of his letters to the Duke of Buckingham will confirm.

That fact should definitely be given a much greater prominence in history lessons, but one should tread carefully. Since James was Scottish, a teacher may run the risk of offending that devolved nation, thereby sinking into xenophobia, Little Englishness and potentially racism.

Altogether, these are rather slim pickings left for our DEI-fied educators. Since they can’t rewrite history as easily as literature, the only path open to them is to nail Britain’s past to the wall of opprobrium by portraying it as racist, homo- and trans-phobic, misogynist, colonialist – and nothing else.

Giant strides are already being made in that direction, but there is still room for improvement. And with Bridget Phillipson in charge, such improvements won’t be long in coming. I trust her implicitly.