Image CC BY-NC-SA nzbuu

I grew up and have returned to live on the edge of a very deprived area. What caused its deprivation? Going from once being the largest mining village in the world to having no coal mines in the area. We’re talking (at least) third generation unemployment for many people.

But I’m surrounded by wonderfully different and independent people, proud of their mining heritage. Which is why it makes me sad when those in a position to make things better conflate two different forms of ‘culture’.

On the one hand, we’ve got a dialect (‘Pitmatic’) audibly distinct from ‘Geordie’ (that of Newcastle-upon-Tyne), along with different traditions, customs and even artwork that’s a product of the areas mining heritage.

On the other, there’s the drugs, graffiti and crime ‘culture’ that’s been a result of the decline of coal mining.

So when schools and local organizations remind young people of their area’s past, they’re doing them a favour. I was part of a local history project in Doncaster that aimed to do just that. We disseminated video interviews of people involved in the coal mining industry – leading to some wonderful learning conversations and realisations.

But when schools and local organizations allow (or even encourage) young people to graffiti, make drugs references and reward them with gift vouchers that they know will end up being spent on cigarettes and alcohol, they’re doing them a massive disservice. That’s got nothing to do with culture and everything to do with crime and social disadvantage.

We need some clear thinking and action on this. I doubt my area’s any different from others in anything other than specifics.

There’s a difference between meeting young people half-way with cultural references and capitulating to the criminal underworld.

Alec Couros tagged me, so I’d better respond. I’m doing it here rather than on my teaching blog because I feel this is a more appropriate home.

1. Post these rules before you give your facts
2. List 8 random facts about yourself
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
4. Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged

Here goes (without, of course, me mentioning anything about how impossible it is for human beings to do anything truly random…)

1. My first pet was a fish called Banjo that spent more time swimming backwards than forwards.
2. I was brought up in Ashington, at one time the largest mining village in the world.
3. I bite my fingernails.
4. My political views swing wildly from fairly right-wing to quasi-communism.
5. I know every line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
6. I get really bad migraines from the colour annatto (and related orangey food colours), which can be found in Coca-Cola, coloured cheeses, etc.
7. As an undergraduate student I worked in HMV and developed quite an eclectic taste in music.
8. To my shame, my wife Hannah beats me at almost every game under the sun. Except cards.

Like Alec, I’m not going to bother commenting on the following people’s blogs to let them know they’ve been ‘tagged’. Instead I’ll leave it to the power of WordPress and Technorati! I’ll just go with those in my ‘edublogs – must reads’ folder in Google Reader:

• Chris Sessums
• Doug Noon
• Karyn Romeis has already posted hers
• Wes Fryer has already posted his
• George Siemens
• Clarence Fisher
• Karl Fisch
• Jeff Utecht
• Will Richardson