Forgive me for referring again to David Osler's excellent site but there was a recent post and thread of some interest (well, my contributions, of course, were fascinating!) on the subject of how history should be taught in schools. This put me in mind of 'Shuggly-Wuggly the Feeble' who apparently teaches the subject whilst rehearsing his real ambition to become Censor-in-Chief to the next Socialist government! Anyway, it was enough to provoke me into paying his blog a visit and, lo and behold, there was a perfect example of what passes for thinking amongst the teaching classes. (Pity the poor children ...)
According to 'Shuggly-Wuggly', there is an idea afoot in government circles to give benefit recipients food vouchers instead of cash. This is an idea which I have long advocated because, irrespective of one's political philosophy, it is a prime example of straightforward commonsense. But not to 'Shuggly-Wuggly'! Somehow, and don't ask me how, he equates this idea with (some of) the old 18th/19th century mine and mill owners who paid their workers in vouchers which could only be spent in the 'company store'. Now, dear reader, let me ask you, do you see just a teensy-weensy difference between these two propositions? And I am not referring to the fact that in 'Lord Gradgrind's day he was dealing with people who did work, where-as today we are dealing with people who do not work - for a variety of reasons, many of which being entirely spurious. No, the resolutely ignored elephant in 'Shuggly-Wuggly's classroom is that these vouchers will be exchanged for food parcels provided by a charity. They in turn, presumably, will buy the food on the best terms they can from the supermarkets.
Now, suddenly, 'Shuggly-Wuggly' stands up for libertarianism by insisting that benefit recipients should not be denied the freedom of having their own money - er, well, actually, 'Shuggly', old boy, it's not 'their money', it's my money! But according to this most unlikely recruit to the Chicago School of economics, these people should be given 'choices' by having their own cash in hand, presumably so they can buy the occasional 'sawdust-burger 'n' chips' from the nearest greasy spoon (manned by people who do work!) and spend the rest buying their relaxation drugs of choice from the local dealer!
In perusing 'Shuggly-Wuggly's piece, one thought kept recurring: were my son to have been taught the history of the industrial revolution by this great pedagogue would I have been forced to knock a load of rubbish out of his poor little head on a fairly constant basis?
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