History

[Viktoria]

Listening to BBC4 today some one spoke about how some people(and there has been a tread re getting children interested in History and how difficult it sometimes is for them to get a sense of time)just don`t have a sense of time and can`t relate to the past at all.
They told about conducting a group of,if not all Americans at least some in the group  being conducted around a stately home ,were.
The date the house was built,- 16th century -the portraits around the walls. many from the reign of Charles .1.etc .were all explained.
I think a plane flew overhead, ( I was busy in another room but could pretty well hear) and it was explained there was a nearby airport.
An American lady asked whatever possessed the owners to build so near the airport!
And we think little children find it hard .
I can remember my dad talking about life in the trenches, I had a vision of nice, straight, tidy ditches.No sense of the utter chaotic nature of those winding passages deep  in mud.


                                                           Viktoria

[rosie99]

I think a plane flew overhead, ( I was busy in another room but could pretty well hear) and it was explained there was a nearby airport.
An American lady asked whatever possessed the owners to build so near the airport!
                                                       

That is said about Windsor Castle being under the flight path to/from Heathrow   

[Erato]

Um, Viktoria, dare I suggest that you don't understand [admittedly low quality] American humor?

[Viktoria]

Oh Thankyou, I was listening but did not realise it was THERE,joined the programme part way through .
Well did they mention Prince   Charles etc because I heard that name and as I was not aware it was Windsor assumed -wrongly it was about Ch.1.?
I was in and out of the room where the radio was.
Perhaps an American RootsChatter will post something about how  people jump to the wrong conclusions, and it will be ME they are meaning!
However to say that about WINDSOR CASTLE      

Viktoria.

 meaning!

[Viktoria]

I did not get the impression it was a quip , I thought it was a serious comment .
Do you know what, I am really chastened  got the wrong end of the stick but still waved it vigourously. I`ll slap my own wrist !
Thanks .Viktoria.

[Mike in Cumbria]

I did not get the impression it was a quip , I thought it was a serious comment .
Do you know what, I am really chastened  got the wrong end of the stick but still waved it vigourously. I`ll slap my own wrist !
Thanks .Viktoria.

I heard the programme and it was reported as fact, although it had clearly been meant as a joke.

[rosie99]

There are bound to be tourists (English/UK or Overseas)  that say it seriously as well as joking.  I have heard it said when I have been in Windsor though whether they were joking or not is anyones guess 

I did not hear the R4 programme so have no idea where in the country they were talking about.

[Jeuel]

There's nothing like experience.  I thought I knew about trench warfare, but a walk around an exhibit in the Imperial War Museum - a mock-up trench with the sound of gunfire, shells etc was enough to tell me I could barely imagine the reality.

History can be quite hard for children.  I worked in a primary school and the children did a bit about WW2. We took them to a local house which still had an Anderson shelter in the garden.  One of the children thought it had been made specially for them - she'd not grasped what we were saying, or someone's granddad giving a talk about bombing.

Once you get beyond your grandparents' accounts of life, it must all become much trickier to envisage.