Primary school children in England have reportedly been asked by the National Trust to write poems “denigrating” the British Empire, as campaigners attempt to convince the heritage charity to abandon its increasingly woke agenda.
A group of 100 children were led by controversial left-wing professor Corinne Fowler, of Leicester University, on a tour of country houses in order to inspire them to write poems chastising the former owners for their connections to colonialism, according to The Times.
Prof Fowler defended the initiative — which is part of the Colonial Countryside Project that has listed Sir Winston Churchill’s home on a BLM-style shame list — telling The Times: “Colonial Countryside pupils produced work which expresses the fullest possible range of approaches, perspectives and emotions, from critical to curious to expressions of wonder.”
In response to seeing a dress sword at Charlecote Park near Stratford-upon-Avon, recovered during the Siege of Lucknow in 1857 amid the Indian rebellion, one student wrote: “Stolen by the English; a freedom sword, a stolen freedom sword.”
The children were said to have been saddened about the animal decorations on the walls of some of the homes, with Trust employees telling the youngsters that elephants were used “in order to display power in ways which Indians would recognise”.
The Trust’s Colonial Countryside Project has previously come under fire after it was revealed that primary school-aged children were used to “reverse mentor” National Trust staff on the alleged evils of British colonialism.
The woke push from the heritage body has sparked an internal backlash, with National Trust members establishing a pressure group, Restore Trust, in order to stand up for British history against the Black Lives Matter iconoclasm sweeping through the charity.
Jack Hayward of Restore Trust said: “We don’t have a problem with an objective assessment of history. We have a problem with people being subjective about history.”
The group said that a “political agenda has come to dominate” the National Trust and that there has been a “relentless diminution of standards” within research projects.
Restore Trust said that the charity should refrain from “lecturing” the public and deriding its “open-minded” membership, who are well aware that “history is complicated.”
The campaigners are attempting to restore “the Trust’s original apolitical ethos” in order to “make all visitors feel welcome and included without demonising anyone’s history or heritage” and “to use history responsibly as a tool for understanding, not as a weapon”.
The woke march through the institutions in Britain has also seen a recent effort to introduce leftist ideology to young school children, with a leading teachers’ union calling for all curriculum to be “decolonised” by teaching black history in every subject, including maths and science.
The former president of the NASUWT union, who brought forth the proposal, Michelle Codrington-Rogers, said: “We built the pyramids, developed modern numbers, built universities. Our ancestors were philosophers, scientists, military strategists, authors, writers, activists and so much more.”
“We have a responsibility to be inclusive for all of our students and this starts with us ensuring that there is black visibility for our children and young people. Not just black children, but all children. It is crucial to recognise that black history is all of our history,” Codrington-Rogers added.
It comes as a group of unions and education charities called for toddlers in Britain to be educated about the problems of “white privilege” in order to “develop anti-racist views” within children.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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