School "Culture Day' - why didn't school see this coming?

[mids2019]

https://www.joe.co.uk/news/school-issues-statement-after-sending-girl-home-for-wearing-union-jack-dress-496690?fbclid=IwY2xjawLkEB9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHmXD4szLMfsqNubbE12kCn_Noe5jb2VGlNFVU0_IUIevHxzByCQ-5GXFN8F8_aem_P-q7I_yFCq82TY-Qr8mGdw

A local school state d a huge debate by sending a girl home on school culture day for wearing a union Jack dress. The question is why the school should have naively held an event which actually least a to more division than unity?

My daughter (white British) attended a similar event, for which she paid a pound, and dressed in jeans and t shirt. I asked how she had decided upon the attire and she stated 'well I don't have a culture'. I then had to explain that she did have a culture and even the jeans and t shirt were a product of fashion changes in western liberal society. We had a discussion about all the great products of white British culture, the music,science, results of the industrial revolution, shared experience in great wars, monarchy etc.

There is a white British culture but going into detail about this obviously brings into focus cultural divide and opens up divisive areas whether white British culture benefited from colonialism and past oppression.

Of course culture day probably was meant to highlight minority cultures and act to promote dress etc. from ethnic minorities as a welcoming inclusive gesture but by allowing all pupils to think about their culture we have to define 'white British' culture and by defining 'white British' culture schools have inadvertently started a discussion they didn't intend.

I have to say the innocence of some posters on here is positively enchanting….

Absolutely, same here.

Better than spreading misinformation due to a basic inaccuracy.

You maybe did not like it because it mentions British achievements e.g. Shakespeare and that we have an amazing history. And that is the crux, I suspect, suggesting British history is not this black, oppressive, wicked, imperialist history but much more nuanced and with many things to be proud of. She did not mention the abolition of slavery - done almost entirely by British insistence and British influence (sometimes, it is true, on a gunboat), nor that Britain spread parliamentary democracy around the world, produced both the agrarian and industrial revolutions etc. It contained things a child might notice or parents might explain to her. The speech pointed out that she had been taught a lot about other cultures - which delighted her - but not her own and stated that being British was still a culture and part of what she is (and I suspect this might have been written by her parents but that doesn't make it untrue). She had good things to say about her own culture and that seems to have been the unforgivable sin. What the business about Welsh flags and farmers was I haven't a clue - the Welsh should be up in arms at this display of anti-Welsh culture by the English! Henry III and Edward Longshanks apparently ride again in this particular school.

The speech is irrelevant anyway as even dad said nobody at school read it, and there were seemingly no plans for the girl to give a speech in the first place...

A bright 12 year old could easily write that.

Did you miss that Courtney’s father is a Tommy Robinson supporter who appears to be prepared to let his child speak at one of his rallies?

It's not me...it's you. Constant opposite are the mark of AI. Kids are being encouraged to use it, apparently. Scriptwriters, IMHO, have had it because of AI (sorry, not on thread, just a personal irritation).

I think the days of people putting up with their culture and traditions and sense of pride in their home country being dissed and forbidden is over. You can cling to your “Britain is so very bad” rhetoric- but for most people it’s been pushed too far.

Mary Quant in the 60s put Twiggy in a union jack dress her fashion was seen as iconic and part of the cultural revolution of the time.
One of the Spice Girls wore a much shorter version when they were big.

Pete Townsend from the Who famously wore a union jack jacket designed by Kit Lambert.

The 90s were known as the 'Cool Britannia' era when Union Jacks were on everything.

Stormzy turned up on stage at Glastonbury one year in a vest with a Union Jack on it designed by Banksy.

Dua Lipa wore a Vivienne Westwood designed Union Jack jacket and skirt to the 2021 Brit awards.

Wearing the flag is part of British culture.
It has been suggested that it is the most important item of clothing in British Pop Culture.

I'm sure there are loads of other examples, but for the last 50+ years in the UK, wearing the Union Jack has been a normal part of it.
Tourist shops in London seem to be plastered in Union Jacks because they are seen as representing the UK.

It doesn't belong to the far right, it belongs to the country all these people of whichever culture are living in.
They are being invited to celebrate their cultures AT THE SAME TIME as Brits should be able to celebrate theirs.

The Union Jack is a symbol of 3 diverse groups of people with their own flags coming together under 1 flag.

My poor was that I would expect a “straight A”12 year old to produce something more nuanced.

It evidently is, and I showed you a tiny part of the history of tea, and the UK, in my pp.

The fact you are ignoring this shows how disingenuous you are.

Britain and tea are linked, culturally and historically.

If you struggle with this, please go to your local library. There are millions of books regarding this, and most are fascinating.

The whole thing…

Amongst my Dc’s widely diverse S London friends the kids from W Africa were no more likely to wear kente cloth than my Dc were to wear a morris dance outfit.

It’s a patronising form of fancy dress.

Learn about the roots of different cultures factually and together rather than parading kids and recipes about.

Drinking tea doesn’t have to be unique to the British to make it a part of their culture, though.

Dancing isn’t unique to one culture either, is it, but dance is a large part of many cultures.

It’s the specific way something is done, the significance of it and the social aspect that makes it cultural.

Tommy Robinsons rise (and his followers) has been facilitated by the useful idiots yo the left, peddling ridiculous demands and misinformation. Most people want to be centre, the more the left has pushed, the more people have been attracted to the far right for balance.

If the school did have reason to believe that the child was being a political pawn then why on earth would they have issued the effusive and unreserved apology and subsequently asked her to take part in a charity run?
That wouldn’t make sense, would it?

I don’t think Britain is very bad. I think we have to be very careful with national symbols now that the right and far right have hijacked them. If Courtney had been obviously dressed as whichever Spice Girl it was and actually mentioned Brit Pop in her speech then that would have put a different perspective on it.

Because sometimes you have to hold your nose and deescalate a situation.

4/5 peoples. The Welsh are represented in the Union Flag as part of England (I think it's time to stick a dragon in the middle, personally). Cornwall is not represented at all - their flag is the saltire of St Petroc (I think - willing to be challenged on this one). The white dragon, of course, is the original English flag, being the emblem of Wessex. Perhaps the girl should have worn this along with an 'Alfred'
cap - Make England Great Again?😀

Of course tea is a huge part of British culture and this recognised internationally. That’s why my American friends all want to buy English tea as a souvenir when they visit. That is why tourists want to spend large amounts on a traditional afternoon tea. Beautiful tea pots and tea sets are a huge part of this, and porcelain tea sets from Royal Doulton, Royal Worcester, Wedgewood and so forth are a big part of British heritage.

Schools obviously can't bad mouth children and their parents to the media can they? They've no choice but to be diplomatic.
I'm keen to hear from or about the other kids who were apparently also turned away...

If you look at the original letter that the school sent out for this event, the rules were that children could wear a traditional outfit from their culture, and had to inform the school they were doing so by a set date.

Wales and Scotland both have traditional national dress which I'm aware of, England does not, but she might have been OK dressed as a Morris Dancer or a Pearly Queen. Not many traditional outfits are "English" because we've exported our fashions across the Globe for so long that they could be found anywhere.

Having said all that, this sort of draconian holding children to strict rules is bound to cause upset and I think secondary schools in general need to chill out and stop trying to be Michaela.

So just a dress. That apparently is bad as it’s the national flag, similar to pop stars wear.

Apparently the young girl needs to be punished for who her father follows on social media too.

Tea is not "uniquely British" for crying out loud, which is the only point I'm making.

Linked culturally and historically, yes, of course it is, but that's not something I'm denying.

The original point was that tea-drinking is invariably mentioned as something quintessentially British, which, while that might be true, isn't exactly unique to Britain, and nor is it something Britain can even claim to have invented and passed on to other cultures. On the contrary, it's something we adopted from other cultures ourselves, so it's a bit cheeky to try and pass it off as culturally more significant to Brits than any other culture.

What I dont understand is why being British is such a problem?
Happy to celebrate other cultures but we have one too.