Flag waving singing

 I love a bit of flag waving singing. I enjoy teaching anthems and have the kids sing God Save the Queen or Rule Britannia whilst waving a flag. It’s a musical skill that is important to develop, not because of any stupid notion of indoctrinated National pride but because it teaches pulse and the ability to sing while performing another task. I ask children, as they get older, to think about the words they are singing and whether, for them, they represent the country they want to live in and we even write our own anthems in upper KS2. That is, the children write their own. In 2017 I was quite shocked at how many wanted to write about Brexit and great independent nations without foreigners. I didn’t stop them though. Just as a few years before I didn’t stop the boy that wrote an anthem worthy of the Sex Pistols that I think he called Kill the Queen. Learning to accept all sorts of views is important and in a class there are all sorts of views. I also enjoyed the group that wrote about food because they thought there was nothing that represented the UK more than pizza, curry and pot noodle.

So, I can’t quite understand why I feel so discomforted by this tweet and the accompanying song that all schools are supposed to teach their children on Friday.

The song became a hot topic of discussion on the music teachers’ forums last night. There was a lot of anger. They did not want to be forced to teach their children a particular song. It felt reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Music teachers with their huge knowledge of musical theatre points to the moment in Cabaret where the children started singing enthusiastically about Hitler as being the point where they realised that the Nazis couldn’t be stopped. Indoctrinate the children first to win the battle. 

After the insistence that all public buildings fly the flag this feels tacky.

I’ll be honest, my problem comes from other reasons. It’s just an awful song. The kids in the video aren’t actually singing it because they are too busy waving flags, being pushed around and made to lie on the floor like a human Union Jack. 

The lyrics that have upset music teachers are, “We are Britain and we have one dream ,to unite all people in one great team. Strong Britain, great nation, Strong Britain, great nation, Strong Britain, great nation, Strong Britain, great na-a-a-tion.”  It also includes the line, “so many faces moving at a different pace,” which is supremely terrible.

It is so bad I actually thought it was a joke but I don’t think it is.

Also, the government have been going around giving the impression that singing is the most dangerous thing you can do for the last 15 months. They’ve hammered the message home so hard that many schools still aren’t singing and nearly all aren’t gathering in big groups for this kind of activity. However, because the government supports this particular political cause we are suddenly meant to drop everything they have been saying and join One Britain One Nation (other racist groups are available) to sing this shit song badly, because with only two days to go there’s not much time to learn to sing it well.

I’m really hoping that this does turn out to have been some kind of joke and I end up looking stupid for ranting about a spoof. I hope you can all say, “Ha ha, you were caught out.” The alternative is that it ends up becoming a kind of Horst Wessel Lied  where were are singing about clearing the streets for the red, white and blue army.

I’m not sure where this will all end but for now, I seem to have Springtime for Hitler from the Producers stuck in my head.