Last week, it was reported that The Swedish Board of Education, Skolverket, planned to erase history elements older than the year 1700 from Swedish history classes. Now, after intense criticism, the Board withdrawals its plans.
“The Board of Education can observe that there is a lack of support for our suggestion and therefore, we can already now before the inquiry time has expired, establish that the Antiques will remain in the elementary school’s course plan for history, the authority states in a press release.
Last week, there were wild protests in the country against the Board’s suggestion to erase ancient history, not at least within academia, where Dick Harrison, Professor in History, called the intended plan of history removal “an intellectual suicide and f*** sick”.
The planned revised course plans from Skolverket would have erased Ancient Greece, The Swedish Great Power era in the 17th century, Rome, the dark ages and other culture-shaping phases of Europe’s past from Swedish teaching in upper grades.
Instead the idea was to focus more on the post-war era in the 20th century, including the rise of postmodernism. It took the Board less than five days to change its view after a massive social media storm.
However, the destiny of teachings about the Swedish Great Power era, when Sweden ruled the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, is yet to be decided.
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