As mentioned, there is no absence of teaching materials on the Irish famine that can touch head and heart. In a role play, “Hunger on Trial,” that I wrote and taught to my own students in Portland, Oregon—included at the Zinn Education Project website
I wonder why this person would be wanting people to teach more about the Irish potato famine. It is a mystery.
students investigate who or what was responsible for the famine. The British landlords, who demanded rent from the starving poor and exported other food crops? The British government, which allowed these food exports and offered scant aid to Irish peasants? The Anglican Church, which failed to denounce selfish landlords or to act on behalf of the poor? A system of distribution, which sacrificed Irish peasants to the logic of colonialism and the capitalist market?
I think you meant to say "are told, and lead to a conclusion".
According to wikipedia, at least, this is a topic under debate by historians. Do you expect kids to draw any conclusions on such a thing? Do you expect them to do so in a natural way that encourages free thought when the teacher wants to push on them a lesson?
Let’s make sure that our schools show some respect, by studying the social forces that starved and uprooted over a million Irish—and that are starving and uprooting people today.
Lets use complex historical topics to bash capitalism, yeah, sounds good to me!
Multinationals like Pearson have no interest in promoting critical thinking about an economic system whose profit-first premises they embrace with gusto.
I am so glad to hear this comment on what drives companies to do things from a person who has probably never actually seen the process behind how these books are made.