Originally Posted by TBM
Originally Posted by +8Rich
TBM, a little smile for you in an attempt to lighten the thread a little, taken from "The Book Of Fair Devon" 1899-1900 which I dip into every now and again, it's a hoot.

"As to the county's associations with the past - the long list of noble names which Devon has given to the history of our land - is there not a further charm in the recollection of these men and their deeds ? Does not the heart thrill at the mention of the names of such men as Hawkins, Raleigh, Sydney, and Gilbert ? Who can walk upon the Hoe at Plymouth - that historic spot which has looked upon such varied events of history - without recalling the deeds of the "glorious great one's gone" ?"

Great men of their time and never to be forgotten but we have come a long way since this type of presentation in schools, I was reading the passage and imagining the kind of reaction you would have received delivering this to a class of todays teenagers.


In fairness, we do still teach the traditional history, and the kids do still lap up the tales of heroes and their 'derring dos'. I also often weave in anecdotes I picked up from my own varied and diverse past (although gloss over the more dubious and illegal activities!). I didn't start teaching until I was 35 and have had numerous 'careers' ranging from doing dodgy Tarmac drives and working as a Doorman to International Customer Service Manager for Lloyds based in UK/US and HK. I used to have a Library named after me in HK, but not sure it is still there!

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Kids today are really not much different from kids years ago. They like excitement and adventure, and a good historian will interweave these elements into the raw facts to make things memorable and inspire further study. The joy is now that, compared to years ago, the world is a much smaller place, and we have a far greater 'bank' of world knowledge we can use...

As an old codger with a granddaughter just started secondary school I am so far out of date with what they are taught these days but I find it very reassuring that they are still taught the traditional history as well as the contemporary and other cultures, these things are important lest we repeat the same mistakes which of course we do but at least we have had a prewarning of possible outcomes.

I like the library door, were you a real swat on the job or did it go with the territory I wonder.

Engagement for me at school was very much about relating to interesting life stories from my teachers one of whom was a Blenheim pilot.
My geography teacher was also a Shakespearian actor at the Maddermarket Theatre in Norwich and he got the whole class tickets to watch The Merchant of Venice at 13 years old we loved it and created a lifelong interest in live theatre for several of us and of course we all delivered good geography results for him, it's how it works.

2009 4/4 Sport Henrietta
1999 Indigo Blue +8
2009 4/4 Sport Green prev
1993 Con Green +8 prev