- But today’s corporate textbook-producers are no more interested in feeding student curiosity about this inequality than were British landlords interested in feeding Irish peasants. Take Pearson, the global publishing giant. At its website, the corporation announces (redundantly) that “we measure our progress against three key measures: earnings, cash and return on invested capital.” The Pearson empire had 2011 worldwide sales of more than $9 billion—that’s nine thousand million dollars, as I might tell my students. Multinationals like Pearson have no interest in promoting critical thinking about an economic system whose profit-first premises they embrace with gusto.
Less-than-fun Fact: The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, the biggest baddie in contemporary politics, wanted to give 10,000 Pounds to the Irish to help with the famine... but cut it back to 1,000 pounds because that's all the Queen donated and he didn't want to start a political row. Why Drogheda, Ireland has a star and crescent on their crest
The bra report included the transcript of a letter, now stored in Istanbul’s Ottoman archives, in which a host of Irish gentry and clergy thanked Abdülmedjid i for his generosity. The text of the highly stylized document, written on vellum and decorated with shamrock-and-heather motifs, commends the Sultan for aiding “the suffering and afflicted inhabitants of Ireland,” and “displaying a worthy example to other great nations in Europe.” Flattered by the letter, Abdülmedjid i reportedly responded: “It gave me great pain when I heard of the sufferings of the Irish people. I would have done all in my power to relieve their wants.... In contributing to [their] relief, I only listened to the dictates of my own heart; but it was also my duty to show my sympathy for the sufferings of a portion of the subjects of her Majesty the Queen of England, for I look upon England as the best and truest friend of Turkey.”
I wonder why this person would be wanting people to teach more about the Irish potato famine. It is a mystery. 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? Lets use complex historical topics to bash capitalism, yeah, sounds good to me! 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.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
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?
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.
Multinationals like Pearson have no interest in promoting critical thinking about an economic system whose profit-first premises they embrace with gusto.