Mr MacGregor-Thunell

I wrote this in a seminar about "Teaching History in Sweden" some months ago. During the last 15-20 years we have lost quite a few hours in our History courses in Sweden. Many teachers have then automatically cut down the Swedish part of their History course to a minimum which gives the students poor or hardly any knowledge about the development in our country the last 200 years. Their students become illiterate in Swedish History (but they know quite a bit about French, German and British History... ) I see a danger with this illiteracy. We have a need to understand and to feel that we are part of a society around us. If we focus to much on the International development and the International Issues we become strangers to the society around us. We feel allienated. One of the results of this allienation is a fairly common habit to devalue the nation which I don't think is better than the opposite. I therefore wish that we put more effort into our nations history - maybe even develope another topic (a seperate course) - "Swedish History" - to be run parallell with "World History" (which is mostly "European History"). The understanding and appreciation of other cultures and other nations achievements can not be a reality unless you understand your own nations background. This must not be mistaken for a plea for nationalistic history filled with patriotism - when you step over the line and declare that your country is better and the citizens of your nation are superior to your fellow humans you become racistic... Another point is the one Andy brought up in the parallell discussion (students part). What do we do with our minorities? As a "Finn-Swede" I belong to a minority group who today has a need to be recognized, not because we are better or worse than any other group but so we "survive"...

No I don't mind that the Student debate will be visible. About the coming topics - one student suggested "Democracy". I think this might be an interesting topic that can be started by this student...

En mycket informativ webbsida då det gäller allt från bönder och adel till gamla svenska längdmått och myntsystem är Hans Högmans släktforskarsida. Den är både trevlig och lättnavigerad... http://www.algonet.se/~hogman/slaekt.htm

Thank you Richard for starting the debates. It's good that the discussions are on their way, but I was a bit surprised about the topics. I thought we would have one topic going over a two week period and than change to the next topic etc... and I also thought the first topic would be something connected to "Nationalism"... It might be so that you asked your students what they would like to debate... One little problem with this week for our students is the fact that they are now on holiday. Maybe the contributions will be better next week when they return to school and can get a more regular life with access to computers. It will also be very interesting to hear their reactions on these debates. My computer has been very sick but I have at least got some contact with the i-world again. That's a relief. Now it's just to try to recover a few years work from the harddrive...