Passchendaele

[sp1814]

I don't want to offend anyone, and I am not being flippant - but I've literally never heard of this before.

There are rememberance ceremonies going on today - but the Battle of Passchendaele isn't something that (I suspect) my generation really know about.

Is this a notable event in WW1? Am I just uneducated in this, or have others been taken by surprise?

[jim360]

Re-written by everyone. Why assume that only left-wingers have a monopoly on blatant political bias?

[Khandro]

One third of a million Allied troops and a quarter of a million German soldiers died. There's no way to re-write that.

[jim360]

Perhaps a bad place to start, Khandro, since those figures have been disputed and argued over for the last century.

Also are you sure you aren't mixing up "casualties" with "deaths"?

[youngmafbog]

Because, particularly under the Bliar era it was fashionable for left wing teachers to do it.

[mikey4444]

YMB....more drivel !

[anotheoldgit]

New Judge

/// Yes I do. There I was, last Friday, trying to get on the 18:15 (Geddit?) to Surbiton when all hell broke lose. :-) ///

Wasn't another Gay Pride gathering was it? :0)

[anotheoldgit]

Sorry albaqwerty
I see that you got in first.

[albaqwerty]

no apology needed aog, but very kind of you.

[anotheoldgit]

jim360
/// How touchingly naive, AOG. ///

Not naive, if every pupil was to question those who possess a superior knowledge of the subject in hand, no one would learn anything.

[jim360]

To start with, for sure; but anyway, as I had tried to make clear in the second half of that post, I wasn't being entirely serious when I'd said that.

[Peter Pedant]

// Not naive, if every pupil was to question those who possess a superior knowledge of the subject in hand, no one would learn anything.//

In maff ( Jim's main subject) it is quite possible and even common that a good student 'knows more' ( = has greater maff ability ) - than a teacher at skool.
My nephew did - and then read maff at Cambridge - oo-er Mrs ! - and the teacher ended up by throwing him out of the class.

Some secondary school maff teachers have only maff A level ( god help us) and teach up to A level. Another of my relations was teaching 11 and 12 y olds with only an English degree. Her comment was for chrissakes dont tell the parents - teacher shortage

[jno]

I put my faith in the expertise of my History master.

you were lucky then, aog.

I had the same history teacher for my two last years. I also put my faith in what I was taught, for the first year. The second year I mostly taught myself. And as it happened did extremely well in external exams. It wasn't that I knew more than the teacher, just that the teaching itself was badly done. No expertise was involved.

[Ellipsis]

Jim, accounts and estimates vary but it's widely accepted that around half a million died in The Battle of Passchendaele.

[Khandro]

Ellipsis, Yes, I copy that, even the Germans say so and they as a race are not prone to exaggeration.

[Khandro]

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/835927/Jeremy-Corbyn-Passchendaele-battle-invite-holiday
No comment necessary!

[naomi24]

Mikey at 15:04 Tue, this from last night’s London Evening Standard.

//One of the most bizarre decisions of the Blair era was made when the Foreign Office disposed of its historic library, on the assumption that a forward-looking government did not need to bury its head in the past.//

[Khandro]

n. ^^^ :0) Another proof that the left doesn't do history - unless of course it suits the agenda

[jim360]

Why are you always making such sweeping generalisations?

[sp1814]

Khandro

The Blair version of New Labour was certainly not 'Left'. It was centralist liberal.

[ludwig]

// There are rememberance ceremonies going on today - but the Battle of Passchendaele isn't something that (I suspect) my generation really know about. //

I guess that's one of the points of the ceremonies. You know something about it now.