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Date Posted: 07:44:04 09/03/02 Tue
Author: NYC
Subject: Study row


Subject: FW: [aohnn] Plan for Irish Famine Study Under Fire

Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 23:50:59 -0400

Plan for Irish 'Famine'Study Under Fire


By JOE MAHONEY
Daily News Albany Bureau Chief


ALBANY

A century and a half after a famine devastated Ireland, New York educators have fashioned a package of lesson plans that will teach children about that tragic chapter of hunger, homelessness and heartbreak.

The 1,110-page Great Irish Famine Curriculum is about to be sent to 7,000 New York schools so teachers can prepare to incorporate it into lessons next fall.

The curriculum is already sparking discontent among some Irish-Americans because it does not condemn the British policies that some scholars argue led to the famine. The authors amassed an array of material designed to stimulate thought — and let young minds decide for themselves.

"In a teaching curriculum, I don't think it is appropriate to reach that kind of conclusion," said Mary Daley, the state Education Department official who has overseen preparation of the material.

Assembled by Hofstra University professors working with scholars in both Ireland and the United States, the plan is the outgrowth of a 1996 state law mandating that the Irish famine be taught in public schools.

Most outspoken of the critics is James Mullin, a New Jersey educator who argues New York's curriculum is stained by sins of omission. "I don't mind letting students come to a conclusion, but you have to give them the facts," said Mullin, whose private group prepared a famine lesson plan for Nebraska's education department. It argues the harsh British style of rule in Ireland led to the mass starvation.

One prominent Irish-American often critical of the British, Rep. Pete King (R-Nassau), said students should be allowed to interpret the information themselves. "I don't think the British set out deliberately to do this," King said. "But if it was not genocide, it was criminally negligent
homicide. It was indifference and uncaring."

In the famine, Ireland's population plunged from more than 8 million in 1841 to 6.5 million in 1851. More than a million people starved to death or emigrated while the potato crop failed. Irish grain was exported to Britain
while British publications depicted the landless, impoverished Irish as apelike, slovenly savages.

Maureen Murphy, a Hofstra professor who helped lead the curriculum team, said the fact that there is already debate is not surprising. "We have to think like historians and separate ourselves from partisans and political activists," Murphy said.

The lessons are for fourth through 12th graders, running the gamut from how to grow potatoes to mathematical equations and demographic data.

"One of the things I have been very impressed with is how usable it is for a very diverse population of students," said Daley. "It touches on some very basic themes — hunger and homelessness."

One lesson is called: "Folk Songs from Two Traditions: The Irish and African American," while another deals with black abolitionist Frederick Douglass' visit to Ireland in 1845. Douglass reported that he was pleased to have been
treated as an equal by Irish Quakers.

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