Dear LPG,  

I recently heard on the news that one of our political leaders is looking to have the National Anthem sung at least once during each school day. 

I find it quite an interesting idea to reinstate the practice behind going back in time in this way.  Although I did have a look, and internet opinions differ, I found that there were quite a few minor discrepancies but when it came to the details, the general conclusion came as no real surprise.  Whatever the specifics, I think that few people will dispute the fact that patriotism is dwindling at the moment.   

I understand that the objective behind this latest initiative is to instil that sense of pride in our nation although I wonder just how successful making the nation’s children do this will be.  I think that we older people remember what it is to be patriotic inasmuch that you now have to be at least 75 to have any experience of just how important standing up and representing your country is.  Those of us that were born just after the war are the last generation who lived through a time when we really appreciated what we had. 

Even though WWII was only just disappearing into the history books at the time, I grew up in a world where the cinema was the place to see a film and, at the end of the evening showing everyone would stand and no one would think of leaving the auditorium until the National Anthem had been played.  I also know that, in 1966, when my parents got our first ever television, the sound of that song would ring out at the end of evening broadcasting while many people stood while they listened.  Do you remember when television stations showed a test card and closed down as early as 10 o’clock at night?   

It is also the case that people did not move far from where they grew up or visit other countries as readily as they can now and failing that, so much more is instantly available because of our access to the internet.   

I suppose that in our present world, where we are more likely to stream the latest movie and be treated to a progression of lengthy in-depth adverts in the small hours of the morning  we would use time as an excuse to skip these practices.  

I asked my son, a 30-year-old who spent his entire childhood in the borough of Lewisham although he has moved further afield now, which country he placed his allegiance with and he told me that it depends on which aspect of life we were talking about.  I think he was talking with his tongue in his cheek but he implied that there is not a best country anymore.   

Finally, with everyone moving around so much, we do a lot more joining forces with young spouses and partners from other countries and cultures and that has resulted in a few generations of younger people who boast duel nationalities.  So the school assembly with only the British  national anthem included would be seen as a way of forcing the wrong patriotism on quite a few of the children.    

Perhaps the decline of a religious school assembly is the result of there being so many different religions.  Should we cater for the various beliefs of children in our schools and demonstrate fairness for all their nationalities?  They would spend half of each school morning getting through all of the different anthems to keep things fair.  Taking all this into consideration, it is no wonder that our relatively young are more ready to ‘jump ship’ when the mood takes them.   

Sad though it might seem, and I so hope that it never happens, I think it will take another major war to force the worlds younger people to commit to belonging to a country or, perhaps a few extra-terrestrials picking a fight might persuade us all to be proud to be earthlings.  

JC, Brockley 

 

 

 

JC offers a little internet insight she found…

 

 

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