In response to the suggestion that removing statues is sanitising or censoring history (Letters, 24 August): statues are not a way of teaching or preserving history, they are a means of glorifying whoever or whatever is represented. Often they are outright forms of propaganda.
Nobody learns accurate history from observing a statue. What they do is indicate that the values of the subject align with the values of the community, that their behaviour or achievements are approved of.
When you see a statue, you think: “Ah, this person must have done something laudable of which we can be proud, otherwise why would they be honoured in this monument?”
Removing a statue doesn’t erase history, but signals an evolution in values. One could even argue that it indicates an improved understanding of history, as we decide to stop ignoring or excusing appalling examples of violence, greed or self-interest.
Leave the teaching of history to museums, books, documentaries and (ideally) schools.
Claudia Beresford
Worthing, West Sussex
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