Last Wednesday I attend an event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Crick report. The event was housed at the very modern and even science fiction looking building that is the counterpart to the traditional Parliament building. The original parliament building, designed in a time where events and celebration like this one would still have been focused more around the monarchy and would have thus been located in one of the royal premises, has become far too small to accommodate the majority of the goings on of the modern parliament.
The event consisted of various members of Parliament from all parties and specialists and officials of education giving presentations on their conceptions of citizenship education, how it has progressed and the direction that it should be heading. The speakers then sat on a panel to answer questions. In the traditional parliamentary style of the British this was done in a very free and combative manner. Even though we were in a small room voices were booming as tempers were raised in response to interrogative questioning from teachers, advocates and others that work with and promote citizenship education. Even though citizenship education has been mandated here for going on seven years, it is still a very controversial topic. Usually the advocates of citizenship education fit into the more liberal political mind parties where the opponents tend to be more conservative minded. Though its a little more complicated then that with some parties such as the British National Party, an extremely conservative party, calling for an increase in citizenship education but with it’s aim being focused on breeding a sort of nationalism along racially and ethnically bigoted lines.
It was very interesting to see all these sides have their say and be torn apart in turn. I also got to meet some scholars and educators who are interested in the same research area I am looking into now: the history of citizenship education, what it has meant in the past and what connections can be drawn from what it once was to what it is now.
I have started to do some of my research on this topic. I have found some really interesting books and articles such as several written on the need for or concept of citizenship education that were published in the early part of last century. I have found many of these books and articles at the Senate House Library, where I have been spending a significant amount of time. It is a very dramatic neo-classical or art deco style building all in grey. It has been in many movies and written about a lot. It also was the planned capital building for the Nazis when they were hoping to take over Great Britain.
I did not spend as much time in the library this week though as I probably should have because I went to Edinburgh, Scotland on Friday for a weekend holiday.
Besides being treated like a con-artist and almost thrown off the train by Bastard Express (also known as National Express) on the way to Scotland despite paying a £100 roundtrip ticket, it was a very enjoyable trip. My friend and I stayed at a lovely little backpacker’s hostel called Argyll, on Argyll Street, in the heart of Argyll country. Friday evening after checking in to the hostel we went to a whisky tasting at the Scottish Whisky Experience. We learned how to sample and differentiate between different whiskies and got some tradition whiskey glasses to take with us. After that we went on a ghost tour all over Edinburgh, which is supposedly the most haunted city in the world. We didn’t see any ghosts but we did see a lot of interesting and spooky sights. And it was just cool to be able to walk around through the city's graveyards and ruins and such at night.
The next day we went on an all day coach tour that took us to Loch Lomond, the village of Aberfoyle, and Stirling Castle. Despite the legendary monster of Scotland living in Loch Ness not Loch Lomond we still kept our eyes open for it as we strolled around the ‘bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond’. Then from there we had lunch in a very traditional Scottish inn in Aberfoyle. There we dared to try Scotland’s notorious national dish haggis, which we were both shocked to learn that we actually enjoyed. I also had salmon that came out of the loch I had just wandered around.
Then we went to Stirling Castle. I am not trying to sound like a huge nerd but the castle and its landscape looked like something right out of the Lord of the Rings. The castle which was originally constructed on the site over 900 years ago sits on the peak of a dead volcano and hovers over the lowlands that surround it for several miles in every direction. However, in the background are ranges of monstrous snow-capped mountains seemingly stretching on forever. Between the castle and the begining of the mountains is another volcanic parturition with a stone tower reaching up from the tallest of the rocky corners of this natural structure.
The Castle and tower which are only separated by a hand full of lowland miles were held at different times by either the Scots or the English in opposition to each other. Stirling Castle is said to be the key to controlling Scotland and is situated exactly where the lowlands and highlands of Scotland met.
That night we went on a pub crawl around Edinburgh going to several unique and interesting old pubs around the city. At one there was a local band playing some traditional Scottish folk music.
The next day we went to Edinburgh castle which stands in the middle of the city and is visible from all points around it. It is not quite as old or historically important as Stirling Castle but is very cool to have a walk around and it offers some amazing views from atop its walls. Afterwards I bought some traditional Scottish wool scarves, which I was very glad for as the Bastard Express train I took back was very very cold despite it being so crowed that people were forced to stand in the loos.
All is well as it all ended well and I had a great time and am now happily back in my favourite city!