What did you learn this week?

While waiting in the reception of my daughter's school on Thursday I picked up a copy of a recent inspector's report which detailed some of the highlights of the curriculum:

(1) Pupils learn about Edwardian social attitudes in order to understand the motivations of characters in [i]An Inspector Calls[/i].
(2) Pupils research the health, social and cultural benefits of their favourite sport/physical activity.
(3) Pupils learn about neurodiversity and how much more colourful and interesting the world can be when we try to include rather than ignore marginalised and vulnerable groups in society.

Meanwhile, in the 'adult' world I learned:

(1) That the latest 'upgrade' to the Teams app is incompatible with our company's network.
(2) Investor confidence in our products remains low partly as a result of incinsistent and indecisive central government policy (because Conservatives would rather send asylum seekers to Africa and regulate rickshaws in London than focus on boring financial legislation).
(3) Our most important client is an unpleasant narcissist, but we have to pretend they are not because they have a lot of money (actually I knew that already).

I'm going to see if I can register for school next year 😌

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ArtieKat · M

[quote] Pupils learn about Edwardian social attitudes in order to understand the motivations of characters in An Inspector Calls.[/quote] There used to be a museum at Wigan Pier with a Victorian schoolroom where the visitors had to sit at old-fashioned kids desks. "Teacher" also had a cane lol ;-)

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@ArtieKat Is that last fact the reason it is no longer there? 😅

Morwhellam Quay in Cornwall has a visitor centre where children can experience a working day in a deep mine with no protective equipment, good old fashioned Victorian patriarchy, arsenic poisoning, etc 😩

ArtieKat · M

@SunshineGirl I haven't been there for years and I'm assuming it's not still there because there was a major redevelopment of Wigan Pier not so long ago.

ArtieKat · M

@SunshineGirl And you're in trouble straightaway because Morwhellam Quay is in Devon, next door lol!

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@ArtieKat Yes, guess who was making origami frogs at the back of the coach instead of paying attention when we visited 😬

ArtieKat · M

@SunshineGirl *Guffaws*

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@SunshineGirl I thought children were not used underground in Cornwall's ore mines? On the surface perhaps, though most people generally started work in their early teens anyway.

They were used in the collieries, and the end of such abuse came in Victorian times thanks to Victorian campaigners.

That era comes in for a lot of criticism, some justified but most of it unfair. The Victorians had inherited the results of massive industrial, housing and social changes over a historically very short time; and the later 19C saw a huge swathe of reforms in many areas of these.

The miners did lack PPE. Health & safety was hardly considered. In Cornwall, they even had to buy their own candles, the only form of lighting available! (These mines did not contain the methane common in coal-seams.)

That county also saw one of Britain's worst mining disasters, at Levant Mine, near Land's End. The "man engine" ( a type of lift) failed while fully laden with men emerging at the end of the day's work. The cause of failure? A wrought-iron component broke without warning, perhaps due to metal fatigue long before that phenomenon was at all known - industry was outpacing knowledge.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@ArishMell To be honest, I don't know. Devon Great Consols (the copper and arsenic mine associated with Morwhellam Quay), was one of the most technologically advanced and productive mines of the nineteenth century. Mining in Devon and Cornwall has historically been mainly open cast (the latest venture, a tungsten mine in Dartmoor, blasts the stuff out of the ground). The deep mines drove innovation and south-western miners were in demand internationally for their skill and knowledge.

My abiding memory of the visitor attraction was the liberal use of arsenic in Victorian cosmetics. Caused horrific injuries to internal organs.

Royrogers · 61-69, M

@SunshineGirl there a school of mining in Cornwall. Cambourne i think

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@Royrogers Yes, Camborne School of Mines. Now part of Exeter University.

Royrogers · 61-69, M

@SunshineGirl oh good that it’s existing

Royrogers · 61-69, M

@SunshineGirl do you come from the black flag country

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@Royrogers No, Bristol area. But my parents were stationed at Plymouth and I know Devon and Cornwall well.

Royrogers · 61-69, M

@SunshineGirl were rhey in the senior service

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@Royrogers Yes. Mum was a medic, dad an engineer.

StrictOldManUK · 61-69, M

@ArtieKat In which case I am sure the visitors behaved themselves 😯