WW1 – Never stop learning, never forget

100 years have passed since the beginning of the First World War and there is no one left on the earth who can remember the conflict from a first-hand perspective. Yet the Great War, necessarily, remains a fundamental component of school history lessons and it is imperative that it retains its place in the classroom for many years to come. Of course there is a plethora of material from the last century that also warrants its place on the national curriculum, though the lessons that were learnt from WW1 still resonate now as much as they did throughout the 20th Century.

It is easy to disregard a historical period very different from the contemporary era as insignificant. Of course the world is very different from what it was 100 years ago, and 100 years before that. Shifts in world power, politics and wealth, and developments in technologies, medicine and sciences can make 1914 seem alien to us today. But similar values and principals advocated by human beings exist throughout history, and this is the key point we need to remember.

In particular, young people need to understand the principle behind going to war in 1914 – that smaller nations would not tolerate being overrun and dictated to by larger, imperial powers. The same principal can be recognised throughout the history of the world, up to and including the present day.

Countless historians and politicians have criticised the First World War – science historian Dr. Nick Kollerstrom labelled the conflict as ‘The most pointless war ever’ in a lecture in St. Saviours Church earlier this year. Understandably such a loss of life can never be justified, but we must acknowledge today the reasons as to why such a catastrophe was allowed to happen.