In this edition of Bubny Station Broadcasts
Radka Denemarková, author and historian
Barbora Stárková, Korzo národní
Matyáš Borovský, history teacher at the Amazon secondary school
and moderator Karolína Koubová reflected on commemorations of important past events, the teaching of history, and ceremonial forms of mourning…
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “memorial ceremony”?
Radka Denemarková, author and historian
I could here play the song by Karel Kryl… it’s a kind of formal political act when certain moments from difficult times are simplified in that, once a year, we squeeze out a tear and lay a wreath. We often forget that we are a part of history, that we are history. Politicians pretend that history exists outside of us. I get the sense that this happens in even worse ways that what I experienced before 1989, when it was far more formalized.
…Although we should be glad that people are not forgetting. Laying of wreaths is important on the political level.
Matyáš Borovský, Amazon secondary school
Why is important to know history? Because if you don’t know history, you cannot understand the world today.
Israel and Palestine and those controversial subjects have been brought up here. One thing that teachers are terribly afraid of is controversy. I say that we should, in fact, face controversy head-on. It is necessary. Without controversy, we cannot raise children to have values. So what we have done in our classes has been to talk about Israel and Palestine.
You can watch the full discussion on ČTK’s YouTube channel or on Czech Television’s iVysílání HERE.
