Yesterday's speech by Conservative Schools Minister Nick Gibb pledging to restore fact-based knowledge of History and English literature in our classrooms is to me one of the most heartening statements made by a Government Minister since the Coalition took power.
For historians, and indeed for authors, the thirteen long years of Labour misrule has only seen 'the melancholy, long withdrawing roar' (to quote Matthew Arnold) of education, intelligence and knowledge from our schools. So determined did Labour appear to diminish knowledge of the key facts of British history and the great works of English literature that in my darker hours I began to believe that a conspiracy was afoot deliberately to turn the country (to quote Martin Amis) into a 'moronic inferno'.
In truth, it probably wasn't as conscious as that. But it was certainly the product of a feeble feeling of Guilt about Britain's past. A feeling that is widespread among the Guardian-reading, Islington-dwelling chattering classes, but is almost wholly absent among those to whom the likes of Polly Toynbee talks down.
It's not that there was no hunger for history, or thirst for the great classic stories of our literature. On the contrary, the explosion of interest in the subject - as seen by the popularity of such intelligent (and Conservative!) TV historians as David Starkey and Niall Ferguson, the top ratings for shows like 'Who Do You Think You Are?' and the evergreen love for Jane Austen screen revivals shows that a passion for history and literature is as great - if not greater - than ever. It is just that (to quote John Milton) 'the hungry sheep look up but are not fed'.
I have quoted three famous English writers of the 17th, 19th and 20/21st centuries. But, if Mr Gibb is to be believed, few of the young people who have gone through the education system under Labour will have heard of any of them - let alone read any of their work. According to him, even A-Level students hoping to study History at University did not know that the Duke of Wellington won the Battle of Waterloo. Many believed that Nelson was in charge - even though the Admiral had been dead for ten years.
And if their ignorance of basic military history was woeful, their knowledge of political history was even worse. None knew who those great titans of 19th century politics Disraeli and Gladstone were - nor could they name a single British Prime Minister of the 19th century.
This pitiful mental poverty is the direct result, says Gibb, of relegating the importance of basic knowledge in favour of woolly 'vague skills-based classes'.
But the upside of this depressing litany of ignorance is that the Government intends to change things for the better. In future, if these good intentions come to fruition, children will once more feast on the riches of our culture. They will learn the names, the dates and the lines. The achievements of Peel and Pitt, Churchill and Thatcher; the glories - and the shame - of the British Empire and the battles that made and unmade it : Agincourt, Yorktown, Trafalgar, Jutland, Singapore, Alamein and Arnhem will no longer be less familiar than minor characters in Harry Potter. Let us hope that this truly comes to pass, because to quote Mr Gibb, 'facts, dates and literature, join us all together'.
To get the ball rolling, here's a checklist of ten Questions and Answers about our culture that we all should know off pat without Googling them.
- Which three kings fought for the English throne in 1066?
- Which was the longest, biggest, and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil, and in which conflict?
- Whose tomb were Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrimage going to see?
- Who said (according to Shakespeare) 'A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse?'
- Who brought the printing press to Britain?
- Who said she had the body of a weak and feeble woman, but the heart and stomach of an English king
- Who was the Lord Protector of England?
- How many lines in a sonnet?
- Who, according to Churchill, were 'the Few'?
- Who wrote 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' ?
---------------------------------------------------
Answers: 1) Harold Godwinson, Harald Hardrada, William I; 2) Towton, in the Wars of the Roses; 3) Thomas Becket; 4) King Richard III; 5) William Caxton; 6) Queen Elizabeth I; 7) Oliver Cromwell; 8) Fourteen; 9) The pilots who fought the Battle of Britain; 10) D.H.Lawrence.