- January 27th, 2011
Scottish culture
- nickmorgan
- Comments: none
A key part of being a global citizen is a knowledge and understanding of your own national culture and identity. Here in Scotland ‘culture’ is expressed through a great variety of forms, but I’ll highlight just two here - one traditional and one contemporary - which are covered in many educational settings.
In January each year the life and literature of Robert Burns is a focus for a great deal of activity in schools around the country. There will be Burns Suppers, recitals, quizzes, art works, dances, ceilidhs and much more to help students explore his life and legacy. Here’s an example from Alloway Primary School in South Ayrshire.
The Scottish Government published a special message from the First Minister, and announced extra funding to assist with pupil visits to national heritage sites such as the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. A BBC news story covered this development. BBC Scotland also created a new website dedicated to the poetry of Burns, with audio recordings of his poems being read by a large number of Scottish citizens. Learning and Teaching Scotland plays a supportive role by highlighting useful Burns resources for teachers and developing an interactive map which picks out key places in Burns’ life.
And Scotland now has a new contemporary champion for poetry, with the appointment of Liz Lochhead as Makar, the national poet who will produce new work and add to the assets of Scottish culture. Liz Lochhead is a poet and playwright whose work is studied in many schools. She has created plays such as ‘Mary Queen of Scots got her head chopped off’, and has championed the use of Scots language.
Categories citizenship, scottish culture
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