Letter: We must remember and learn from the agonies of war

Sir: As a teacher involved in a school visit to Ypres and the battlefields of the Somme last week during half term, I was most interested to read Frank Barrett's article (3 November). I found myself in agreement with much of what he said, and both hope and believe that the 43 students (aged 14 to 18) who came with us will return with a greater understanding of the war - a war which took the lives of several former pupils and one teacher from our school.

However, I must correct Frank Barrett on one point - study of the First World War is not a key element of national curriculum history - it is only optional. As we approach the 75th anniversary of the end of the war perhaps this aspect of the national curriculum should be altered so that we may, through education, try to ensure that we remember but do not glorify.

Yours faithfully,

G. M. D. FALCONER

Katharine Lady Berkeley's School

Wotton-under-Edge,

Gloucestershire

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