It is August, in the middle of the "dog days" one might say, usually a time of quiet and reflection before schools and businesses return in September and life begins again. It is probably not a bad day to start a blog which comments on issues associated with historical events that affect our modern lives.
There are no "dog days" though as priorities continue to be a priority and the news is filled with flooding and heatwaves and doom about the future of house prices and the economy threatened with "double dip". This is not a "political" blog but lessons from our past can shed illumination on situations of today. Take the case of the mighty warship "Vasa". Built in Sweden in the 1620s during the reign of King Gustavus Adolphus this warship foundered on its maiden voyage on this day in 1628. Gustavus had yet to make his decisive intervention in Germany in the Thirty Years War and wanted to see his new flagship readied for sea for service with the Swedish Baltic Fleet. The poor construction, lack of ballast and the speed with which it was completed doomed the vessel as soon as more than a breath of wind was felt. Many of its crew of over 400 were lost too.
So will the "Swedish model" hold water? The first free school experiments were in the nineteenth century and I found the story of the Peckham experiment very moving. This shows how parents chose for themselves an education for their child just after the second world war - an important lesson for current policymakers.
http://www.thephf.org/school.html
No comments:
Post a Comment