dobobobo said:
Dalian Blue said:
Yup,
I found out about Peterloo in the late '70's, a few years after I had left school. I remember being pissed off that we were never taught about such things in the history lessons! (I hope that has changed now).
Aye, I totally agree. My primary school and secondary school were both a 10 minute walk from the Bridgewater Canal. Not once were we taught anything about the actual purpose of that canal and how it played a vital part (along with many other parts) in Manchester becoming a city with so much heritage.
That's really piss poor application from the schools and teachers involved, in my (admittedly, entirely unprofessional) opinion.
I can't think of any primary school in my part of Ireland that does not take the kids on field trips of their own locality; explaining the local history, nature and folklore. Mad thing is the kids love it, too. If we learnt nothing else, what we were taught on those days is ingrained in us... Ask me to ask me to prove Pythagerous theorem and I'll grin sheepishly, but the following is like mother's milk to me:
Walking around the block (about a square mile or a little more) on which my primary school still stands, we saw the site of the beginning of the Limerick Soviet (1919), The Yellow Hole - a famine mass-burial ground (1840's), the site of the signing of the Treaty of Limerick (1691), Thomond Park Stadium, King John's Castle (1169), the house where one of two mayors of Limerick was murdered by the Black and Tans on the same night (1921), the bridge where the the ghost of the Bishop's Lady tried to steal the soul of Drunken Thady and he had to throw himself into the Shannon to escape her (we believed it!), the house where the actor, Richard Harris, was reared, the the road where the ghost of the famine cart , taking the bodies to the Yellow Hole, was said to be seen on dreary winter nights (obviously true!), the site where Auld Nell, the local banshee was supposed to have been seen, keening the recently departed Mac's and O's (yup, true again), the road Sarsfield rode in route to slaughtering the Williamite forces at Ballyneety and relieving the 1690 siege, the old military barracks that changed hands three times during the Irish Civil War (and the red bricked house beside it, still pocked with bullet holes), a public park with oak, birch, ash and sycamore trees and also the largest river on these islands, the Shannon, at its widest point.
There's millions of similar tales surrounding every single school on these islands, if the teachers only took an interest in passing it on. Shame on them. How can they expect the kids to love and respect the place if they don't know it?