大象传媒

Historian Priya Atwal explores the global pitfalls in telling textbook national history. Lebanon has suffered sectarian violence, invasion, civil war and turmoil for much of its history. The future itself is now being played out daily on the streets amidst mass protest as people seek redress for a more just society. Nothing that has led to this struggle or indeed much of anything else relevant to Lebanon's modern existence can be found in the classroom itself. Children must learn a history that is frozen at 1943, the year Lebanon achieved independence. It has been this way for generations. When peace finally came after the bitter civil war all parties called for a new unified history to be written-itself extremely problematic but nothing has been agreed on so for now children open their textbooks to a past where time is frozen.