No idea what coal is!

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Rob Pulham

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
I wasn't sure whether to post this or not or indeed where to post it if I did but "Talk" seemed most appropriate.

As a result of taking part in the 200th anniversary celebrations for the formation of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, Chris was asked to go along to a primary school in Stockton to talk to the children about her railway paintings, which as a local artist they have been studying in their art class.

We went along yesterday (I was just fetching and carrying) and although Chris thought she was going to be chatting to a single class, when we arrived they had 75 or more kids from 3 classes in attendance. Their ages ranged between 7 and 9 and they were well behaved and very engaged with the talk about painting in general.

They asked a lot of sensible questions but thing that most astonished us, was when their teacher revealed that they had been building a replica period train. As part of this project, they had been creating coal from painted balls of paper but none of the children had ever seen or had any idea what coal actually was, or how it was used.

Perhaps we are living in the past but we found it quite incredible that kids living in Stockton haven't seen coal or know what it is given the amount of coal exported via the river Tees over time.
 
timbowales

timbowales

Western Thunderer
Rob, I, for one, am not surprised that today's primary school children, maybe even secondary school children, don't know what coal is. I am fortunate to have grown up on Tees-side during the fifties and sixties when we still used coal for heating and even hot water. Anyone remember back boilers? You had to keep the fire going all year until the council started fitting immersion heaters :)
That was before the Thatcherisation of British industry so there were several steelworks and shipyards along the south bank of the Tees, not to mention ICI Wilton.
Here in Carmarthenshire, where I now live there's hardly a trace of all the past mining activity.
I believe it's called progress :(
 
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ovener

Western Thunderer
Sounds like a visit to a local heritage railway is called for! Or even the Darlington Loco works where the new P2 is being built.
 
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DavidB

Western Thunderer
When I was teacher training in west London in the early 70s, I spent time coaching hockey to teenagers from Southall. Having to work through an interpreter, I discovered the children (14 to 16 year olds) had never seen either a sheep or cow.
 
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40057

Western Thunderer
We all live in our own worlds, probably to a greater degree than we realise.

I am sure those children in Stockton could show me electronic gadgets that I wouldn’t have a clue what they were. I guess they would be surprised at my ignorance.

Children aren’t now taught things in school that I learnt (how to use a slide rule, for example) — but they are taught about lots of other things that weren’t in my school curriculum (in many cases because the knowledge didn’t exist when I was at school). The world has changed.

As for coal, I lived in South Wales during the miners’ strike. It was heart-breaking to watch. The way many industries were closed was brutal. But the coal era did have to end, for environmental reasons in particular. The increase in CO2 in the atmosphere is a disaster which will have life-long consequences for those children in Stockton — even though they aren’t responsible.
 
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40057

Western Thunderer
Eastsidepilot said:
Still part of our industrial history, why is it not taught in our schools ?

Col.
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I don’t know whether it is — apparently not before the very young age of the children in Stockton. I wouldn’t have had that kind of history lesson at their age.

What I would say is that the total time spent in school hasn’t changed very much. What has changed is what we collectively know and what a young person needs to know in the modern world. No-one spent five minutes of their time in school learning about computers when I were a lad. Now, it must be part of the curriculum. In which case something else must have been dropped. I realise that is a gross over-simplification, but young people today need to be taught things I wasn’t, so there will be things I learnt that won’t be taught at school now.
 
robertm

robertm

Western Thunderer
School curricula aside, maybe 10 years ago just before Christmas, I called in at a local watering hole to find a young couple deputising for our regular landlord. She was attempting to light a coal fire in the saloon bar by holding a match to the coal! There were loads of burnt down matches in the hearth. I explained she would need paper and kindling or fire lighters.
She confessed she’d never seen an open fire before!!
 
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Terry

Western Thunderer
I volunteer on a Heritage Railway where ex-BR Mark 1 slam-door carriages dominate. I was amused to see a young woman attempting to open a carriage door by pressiing the rubber door stop! I actually had to dermonstrate turning the handle and pulling the door!

Terry
 
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Fitzroy

Western Thunderer
My kids knew from a very early age what coal was , because I told them that was what they were going to get for Christmas. So they immediately went and looked it up. They were not impressed. Then I told them that I was joking, they had been very good and would probably get a tangerine.
 
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Paul_H

Western Thunderer
MoatLane said:
And really...who would want to work in a coal mine these days?
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You might be surprised.
Worth remembering that the last Welsh steam coal 'mine' was just a big open cast pit. The jobs were operating excavators and driving big lorries.

Even deep underground coal mining isn't as horrible as most people imagine, but could be well paid.
 
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40057

Western Thunderer
Terry said:
I volunteer on a Heritage Railway where ex-BR Mark 1 slam-door carriages dominate. I was amused to see a young woman attempting to open a carriage door by pressiing the rubber door stop! I actually had to dermonstrate turning the handle and pulling the door!

Terry
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It’s quite likely every train she had ever been on had doors opened by pushing a button and no-one had told her this one was different (until you did). If you look at it that way, it would be really surprising if she immediately worked out what to do.
 
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40057

Western Thunderer
John Duffy said:
Because it won't be an exam question. Children are no longer given an education, rather they are coached to pass exams. And there is no way that something that doesn't fit into the climate drivel narrative will be allowed in as a question.

John
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I’m guessing you’re not involved in modern education or you would know that is not the approach. I suggest you have a look at the current Scottish curriculum, ‘Curriculum for Excellence’, and in particular its guiding principles. Some parents certainly are ‘exam focused’, but the curriculum is not.

As for ‘climate drivel’, the first scientific paper postulating that increasing CO2 would increase global temperatures was published in the late 19th century. That was based on the known properties of CO2. We now have a vast amount of empirical data which confirms rising temperatures as atmospheric CO2 concentration has increased. Taking into account the many other factors that affect climate and temperature, only the increase in atmospheric CO2 due to human activity explains the changes observed.

You may not understand the science — or may prefer not to — but that doesn’t make it ‘drivel’.
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Quickly back to Doors:

Life is one continuous learning curve.
Mid 1970s - Mk3 coaches with automatic vestibule doors were introduced.
Folk (in the main, but not exclusively, elderly) would walk back from the buffet car with two hot drinks, one in each hand.
They got to the door, which was closed, turned and placed their cups on one of the adjacent luggage shelves, turned back to open the door - which by now had opened.
So they would turn back, pick up their drinks and proceed through the door- which by this time had started to close and would knock their cups flying.
The problem was solved within a month by changing the timing of the sensors.
Meanwhile I always made a point of sitting at the end of the coach and would try to warn folk, but not many took any notice.
It was fun while it lasted.
 
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