The Perimeter Institute and TVOntario run week long conference to discuss education in 2030. The first task is to change how education is administered.

Education in 2000 as seen in 1910: Is this the bureaucratic vision we

can expect by educational authorities as we move to 2030?

The Future of Education: Online learning and content could trump the bureaucratization of the school system. 

By Tom Thorne

This week a conference about education, and where it is headed by 2030, is taking place at the Perimeter Institute at the University of Waterloo. Issues from this event are covered each evening by TVOntario’s admirable daily public affairs TV program The Agenda and live-streamed on the web at tvo.org.

My first take on this topic is that schools with walls will likely be passé or waning by 2030. Teachers will have an entirely new role as student facilitators and generators of educational media content. They may very well be online rather than live in the classroom. Constant change will not allow for curricula to develop in the way it is presented today by Canadian provincial Ministries of Education. 

Provincial curricula or state standardized testing and the issuance of diploma standards may go the way of the dodo. However, educational bureaucracies have a lot to lose, so we are in for resistance to change by some teachers but mainly by the bureaucracies of local boards of education. Bureaucrats oppose anything that smacks of a lack of rigidity. The stresses on their systems will be seen as an anathema to the status quo. Expect them to drag their feet.

The current top down industrial model of one size fits all centralized Ministry of Education curricula will give way, despite itself, to a much more open system where curricula will be designed by the new breed of entrepreneurial teachers and their learners. It’s the nature of information societies to fragment large bureaucratic structures. 

Educational bureaucracies trying to control the school system with centralized curricula will be experience a fragmentation and constant frustration of their plans. Teachers are already feeling the stresses and conflicts built into the existing system by its administrative style.  The administrative anchor will be funding models to stem constant change and pressures brought by teachers who deal daily with classes where special needs trumps the needs of most of the class.

Teacher’s colleges will become more irrelevant than they are today because teaching education will also be online undergoing constant change and innovation. Web based teacher education will be practical, and immediately useful for students. Much is happening already. Resourceful teachers can find endless materials to engage their students and link them as a class through educational social media that mirrors Facebook and Twitter and makes learning fun and engaging.

For many who are devoted to the current hidebound system of public education this change will be seen as chaotic descent into a new Dark Age. Imagine a system that is no longer a bureaucracy and a place where steps and increments to education are replaced by individually designed interest modules cost effectively assembled for and by students and their teacher facilitators. Maybe this is the way for special needs to be implemented cost effectively.

Grades from Kindergarten to grade 12 will be erased replaced with self evaluation and learning at your own pace will become the norm. The basic job of primary panel teachers will be a return to the 18th Century elementary education topics. Its main function will be to ensure that students can read, write, research, do basic sums and cope with constant change. That too can be done in an engaging way by online educational media.

The greater part of the new educational environment will be on line. In 17 years time (2030) the integrated computer networks will be using first nano techniques and eventually quantum physics to create flexible hardware-software fusions.  This level of cyber techniques will handle, store and dispense most of human knowledge and reprogram themselves as needed. The system will be operated by artificial intelligence that can learn and construct its own hardware and software. The big issue will be maintaining human control over these artificial minds. Hopefully, this need will not become another educational or government bureaucracy.

The search engines will also learn the needs and interests of the learner and constantly present options, ideas and creative ways to think about problems and opportunities.  All new information coming onto the new internet or SUPERNET will be automatically sent to the attention of learners or researchers of that topic. The big problem will be how to manage and organize mega amounts of information and content. School will at last have no walls in fact the concept of school may well give way to content generation, constant lifelong learning and and sifting for decision making.

The internet at this superstage will be the school or an educational repository of data and information turning into usable knowledge and that trend is clearly now already in development and in may cases happening. The only part of this equation not in place currently is intelligent software that can relevantly learn and assemble endless data, information into knowledge cores that constantly change and update and do so in a relevant  and comprehensible way while retaining a trackable history of sources. Today there is a large volume of data and information but knowledge can still be hard to generate from the information glut. 

Education and learning in 2030 will be automated and the important point is how it will be controlled, accessed and dispensed to and by educators and learners. There will be an attempt to create bureaucratic controls because funding will always be an issue. Much of the change to education will need a new mindset that is entrepreneurial and flexible. Sadly this has never been a hallmark of public education which is now a politically correct bureaucracy that is timid and without vision.

© Copyright 2013, Tom Thorne, All Rights Reserved

Canadians John Greyson and Dr. Taraq Loubani still in a Cairo jail. The Egyptian security law can hold them for two years without charge or trial.

Film maker John Greyson and Dr. Taraq Loubani

Canadian film maker and doctor remain in a Cairo prison living with a military state of emergency. Amnesty International takes up their case.

by Tom Thorne

I don’t know if Canadians Dr. Taraq Loubani and filmmaker and York University professor John Greyson realized when they left Canada that the likelihood of getting into Gaza was about nil. The Egyptian army and the Israeli authorities have sealed the border while Egypt remains in turmoil. 

The Egyptian Army and security service doesn’t need Palestinians entering or passing through Egypt at this time. This situation was recently heightened by attacks on army bases in the Egyptian Sinai. As a result many Palestinians who normally go abroad for their education or to do business through Cairo airport cannot get out according to Aljazeera English. Nor can they get out of Gaza through Israel.

So when two Canadian activists for the Palestinian cause want to get into Gaza they are naturally caught up in this current state of affairs. To think that Dr. Loubani and John Greyson are not known to the security services of both Egypt and Israel is to be naive. Although they got into Egypt with their Canadian passports they would have been on a watch list the moment they applied for Egyptian visas in Canada.

And why did they stay in downtown Cairo? Why not stay at the airport before trying to get to Gaza? And why were they strolling about Cairo and walking into police stations to ask directions? A month ago Cairo was in an uproar with protests.  In these conditions of Egyptian unrest when were they going to make their way to Gaza and what is more important how did they intend to get there? I was in Cairo in 2010 and even in those peaceful times the centre of Cairo is a busy place that needs care to move around.

Whether you like the fact that security services have watch lists of not is irrelevant. There is heightened security in Egypt at the moment and in the Sinai where there have been attacks on the Egyptian Army post there by insurgents. Perhaps these attacks are by terrorists or simply people opposed to the Egyptian military regime but no one knows for sure. In the current state of affairs Egypt is locked down giving the police and army emergency powers to arrest and detain. 

A few years back John Greyson refused an invitation to a film festival in Israel because of his opposition to Israel’s current policies with the Palestinian Authority. That act could place him on the Israeli security watch list. His stated objective this time was to go to Gaza and make a film about Dr. Loubani’s efforts to set up emergency medical systems sponsored by The University of Western Ontario. 

A worthy goal perhaps but seen from an Egyptian and Israeli security perspective he is a potential troublemaker. In the middle east it also doesn’t help his cause that he is openly gay and has made several prominent films on this topic. Sadly, not much of the middle east is very open about anything gay. 

Despite Dr. Taraq Loubani or John Greyson’s apparent naivety about the current situation in Egypt and Gaza they are being held by a security law that can be renewed to hold them every 15 days for up to two years. That makes their life in a Cairo prison untenable and almost open ended if the current emergency law is continued. It may be arbitrary but unfortunately this law can be used to keep them under wraps. 

Dr. Loubani and John Greyson have started a hunger strike. They need to be careful that this does not cross some other boundary of Egyptian prison rules. They have been caught in a state of emergency where for the moment a fragile diplomacy is their only tangible hope combined with the usual Amnesty International moral persuasion working on their behalf. Any protests for Loubani and Greyson will probably be ignored in Egypt.

Hopefully the Canadian Embassy in Cairo can convince the Egyptian authorities that they should be simply sent home. But if they are eventually charged then they will enter the murky regions of the Egyptian court system in a time of great flux.  Further efforts should be made at the Egyptian Embassy in Ottawa. Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird should call in the Egyptian Ambassador to register a strong protest that although naive these two men pose no security threat to Egypt.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to stand back from this at this time unless he is needed to open dialogues with more senior Egyptians in the future. Support from Amnesty International came this morning. See their email below:

© Copyright 2013, Tom Thorne, All Rights Reserved

Here is the Amnesty International email:

Over a month in detention and a week into their hunger strike:

Please join Amnesty International in urging the release of two Canadians, Dr. Tarek Loubani and filmmaker John Greyson, who are being wrongfully detained in Egypt

Please send a message to the Egyptian Embassy now  Here's what we're asking: * release Tarek Loubani and John Greyson, unless they have sufficient admissible evidence to try them before a civilian court in line with international fair trial standards and without recourse to the death penalty; * continue to give the men access to their lawyers, families and consular representatives and any medical assistance they may require. Background Two Canadians, Dr. Tarek Loubani and Prof. John Greyson, arrived in Egypt on August 15 with the intention of travelling immediately to Gaza in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Dr. Loubani was hoping to build a relationship between the university hospital in Gaza and the hospital he works for in Canada. Prof. Greyson, a filmmaker, was accompanying him to document the situation in Gaza. On arrival in Egypt the men had to stay in Cairo, as the border with Gaza was shut. The following day, the men were in the vicinity of Ramsis Square in central Cairo where heavy clashes between security forces, supporters of Egypt’s deposed president, Mohamed Morsi, and local residents had taken place from the early afternoon to evening. They were arrested at 10pm when they approached the security forces to ask for directions to their hotel.  The men are detained in Tora Prison, south of Cairo, where they have access to their lawyers and consular representatives.  They are on hunger strike in protest at their continued detention in Egypt. On September 14, the Public Prosecution in Egypt extended their detention for a further 15 days following a brief investigation in Tora Prison. Dr. Loubani and Prof. Greyson began their hunger strike, in which they receive liquids but no food, on September 16. They continue to be held on charges of “violence”, “inciting violence” and “carrying weapons”, as well as “destroying public property”. They are being held alongside hundreds of Egyptians who were arrested during the violence in Cairo on August 16. Amnesty International is concerned that, as with the hundreds of others arrested that day, Tarek Loubani and John Greyson have been accused of a broad array of offences without apparent consideration of their individual criminal responsibility. Please help us end this unlawful detention of two distinguished Canadians.  Sincerely, Alex Neve Secretary General  Amnesty International Canada

  

Pauline Marois' Quebec Charter of Values is flawed legislation unless it is all about separation from Canada.

Pauline Marois waves religious Quebec flag. Here is the heraldic origins of the Quebec Flag. “The Fleurdelisé takes its white cross from the ancient royal flags of France. Its white fleurs-de-lis (symbols of purity) and blue field (symbolizing Heaven) come from a banner honouring the Virgin Mary, reputedly carried by French-Canadian militia at General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm's victory at Carillon. Contrary to popular belief, the white fleurs-de-lis are not taken from the banner of the kings of France who used golden ones”.  Source: Wikipedia

The Charter of Quebec Values: Pauline Marois’ new road to a separate Quebec.

by Tom Thorne

Quebec separatism now has a new propaganda label. It’s the proposed Charter of Quebec Values. Separatists will do almost anything to bring about a separate Quebec or keep the Federal Government on edge. They will tread on the rights of minorities in the name of secularizing the province but the real long term agenda is to take Quebec out of Canada. 

How do the Pauline Marois separatists intend to do that?

They know that two years out there will be a Federal Election and they are making all this fuss now to galvanize their rural Quebec separatist support base and show they have teeth to more moderate separatists who usually fence sit on doing the ultimate deed. This is the “Distinct Society” group.  Any federal challenge or disagreement with the Charter of Quebec Values will be seen as a slap in the face to the wishes and ambitions of the Quebecois.

The Marois government’s plan is first to destroy the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) grip on seats in the Parliament of Canada. Then they want to eliminate the six federal Conservative seats and make certain that the federal Liberal party does not ever rise again in Quebec.  They hope to fragment the Federal presence in Quebec and create a situation where all federal political parties must react negatively to their secular set of values.

Well that part has worked. All federal political parties and their leaders have come out against the Charter of Quebec Values because they can never be Canadian values as spelled out in the Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Premier Marois has set in motion a divisive debate designed to show that the federal political parties are reactionary to ill-defined Quebec values. It’s the oldest propaganda trick in the separatist book.

It’s all so patently obvious. However the brunt of all this political playacting will be real stress for Quebec minorities who value their religious traditions as part of their heritage not only as Sikhs, Muslims and Jews but as Canadians who live and in many cases are born Quebeckers. 

Such acts of insensitivity to others is shocking to the Canadian commitment to multiculturalism . Naturally it will get a response from all federal politicians. However, in my view the return tactic is not to respond to Pauline Marois’ government as they would like. What would throw the Marois government off would be a counter attack against separatism.

The logic is good for this anti-separatist attack. The message goes like this. Why does Quebec need to pick on minorities to present their separatist message? The Marois government will deny that what they are doing this to create a climate for separatism.

Then show clearly that separatists take on their own minority citizens to pick a fight with Ottawa. They know that Canadians (including Quebeckers who see themselves as Canadians) must react to this kind of affront to basic human rights.

Let’s take the federal message to the issue of separatism where the true objectives of the Marois government lie. Make her come clean. Ask her if she will invoke the Canadian Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to keep her Charter of Quebec Values  alive if there is a case to strike it down on the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Ask her what she has done recently to revive the Quebec economy. Bring up issues of a separate Quebec’s economic woes and the inability of properly fund public services after separation from Canada.  Ask her how the present Constitution of Canada protects the language, law, culture and religion of Quebec citizens.  Ask her when her government is going to formally sign the Constitution and commit fully to Canada.

In short give no quarter to separatism, or its slippery cousin Sovereignty Association or attacks on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms with Marois’ Charter of Quebec Values. 

Ask this government to account for attacks on minorities and the xenophobic notions they have of protecting Quebec values. Quebeckers know that Canadian values are a lot better than divisive tactics of separatists whose main objective to take Quebec on the road out of Canada at the expense of its minorities. Ask if the separation ever works how they can live with doing it on the backs of Quebec minorities.

If a separate Quebec has to do this kind of thing to maintain Quebec values then frankly those alleged Quebec values are not worth protecting. This is a shameful exercise to create stress on the Canadian fabric and it should be called for what it really is. It is clearly the rise yet again of the separatist agenda. 

© Copyright 2013, Tom Thorne, All Rights Reserved

The proposed Charter of Quebec Values: Pauline Marois is deflecting important economic issues while promoting separatism.

Mme. Marois: Are you ready for my Charter of Quebec Values?

The Charter of Quebec Values: Why separatists resort to high handed legislation to install their values on Quebeckers.

by Tom Thorne

Pauline Marois is at it again. The separatist premier of Quebec is about to launch new legislation in the National Assembly to secularize Quebec society. Just what she has in mind is yet to be fully determined but if you are a Muslim or a Sikh your head scarf or turban is likely on Ms. Marois’ chopping block. 

Ms. Marois is going to tell you how to dress and conduct yourself in public. Any symbol that may show that you are from a background where your clothes indicate your religious affiliation will now be banned apparently. 

In her zeal to install Quebec Values (another phrase for separatism equally as vague as Sovereignty Association) Ms. Marois is effectively thumbing her nose at Canadian Multiculturalism and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Ms. Marois has a nerve. She will discover that Canadians, and that includes Francophone Quebeckers, cherish their Canadian rights and freedoms. Mme. Marois can expect flack from the public and other political parties both provincial and federal concerning this piece of xenophobic nonsense. 

We know that over time the influence of the Catholic Church is diminished in Quebec where the moral direction of this institution is a misty remanent of a history almost forgotten. Parish churches throughout Quebec now stand as monuments of a low attendance institution stained by scandal. There is no anchor on this front against secularism.

Mme. Marois knows that this is the time to become a real secular state without any religious or moral restraint.  Not only is the secular state on the front burner of this separatist government but also in tandem prickly issues like euthanasia are on simmer in Quebec.

Anything to do with religion is now under attack as Mme. Marois designs what is different in Quebec from the rest of Canada. Her government, even in minority and with many economic ills to rectify, needs other issues to get the economy off their backs.  And it will all be done with a smile and assurances that there is nothing to worry about.

There is a lot to worry about. The Charter of Quebec Values defines what?  It will define differences between the Quebecois fact by pitting this main culture against immigrant groups who hold their cultures and religions seriously. In short it will make conflict stressing differences. It will be our way or the highway. Vive la difference will take on a new ominous meaning.

Canadians are smarter than this Parti Quebecois xenophobia. This proposed law, if it bans freedom of religion or expression will be challenged by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and by the Constitution of Canada.  No Canadian province can enact this kind of legislation without expecting a challenge. Mme. Marois is spoiling for a fight with a good portion of her Quebec citizens and the rest of Canada. Otherwise why is she doing this?

She is trying to get the separatist agenda on the front boiler. Her own leadership of the Parti Quebecois relies on it. If she can appeal to the hardcore separatist elements in her party she will have their help in the next provincial election. That election could happen anytime and she needs a track record of going for the separation of Quebec from Canada to stay in power.

In addition, with a Federal election in 2015, Mme. Marois will have created, she hopes, enough contemptuous energy in her province to destroy the New Democrats hold on the seats in Quebec. She will force Harper’s Conservatives to confront Quebec aspirations ensuring they get fewer than the six seats they now hold in the Federal Parliament.

Mme. Marois will have created a storm. She will try to snare new federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau in her xenophobic political web thus denying a federal Liberal rebirth in Quebec. The only thing restraining Mme. Marois is her minority government. Imagine the trouble she would generate with a majority.

This is all so transparent. The Charter of Quebec Values?  Will this Charter respect multicultural groups, people with different religions and beliefs, Quebec born Anglophones, Quebecois who value their Canadian-Quebec identity? Will Quebec be compelled by public outcry against the Charter of Quebec Values to finally endorse Canada by signing the Constitution of Canada? 

By finally signing The Constitution, Quebec opts for a united Canada. Even without signing they are subject as Canadians to its provisions. It is better that they are aboard formally because as it stands now separatists think (wrongly) that a separate Quebec is still possible by referendum.

Pierre Trudeau some years ago, after the Constitution was repatriated from the British Parliament, was asked when Quebec would sign the document. His response was that Canada would have “to grow up a lot before that could happen”. This is the kind of comment that enrages separatists because it is the truth. 

This separatist Charter of Quebec Values is not creating an environment where Canada can grow up. On the contrary it is designed to create problems, spin propaganda and save Pauline Marois from dealing with Quebec’s real issues which are largely economic.

What is needed is political intestinal fortitude at the federal level endorsed by all Federal Parliament parties that Quebec Separatism is not in the cards. Then the Charter of Quebec Values would be a political non-starter. This proposed Quebec Legislation is clearly unconstitutional. Its strength will be that weak indecisive politicians at the federal level and in Quebec will allow it to create havoc by not being clear about its attack on Canadian values enshrined in the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

© Copyright 2013, Tom Thorne, All Rights Reserved

Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be setting us up for real Senate Reform or are we really seeing poor management from the Prime Minister's Office?

Harper: Vision of Canada or seeking Divine intervention

Prime Minister Stephen Harper picked Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau and Pamela Wallin for Senate appointments. All of them have generated scandal and stress for his government. Then his Chief of Staff Nigel Wright demonstrated poor judgement bailing out Senator Duffy with $90,000 of his own money.  In addition, Prime Minister Harper has gone through seven Directors of Communication. Does Stephen Harper need a personnel management course?

by Tom Thorne

The Senate Scandal just won’t die. It has real traction mainly because it points to  Prime Minister Stephen Harper all the time and if not him, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The rarified air of the PMO seems to trip up consistently over the past year and the problems arise from appointments made by the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister’s chief of staff Nigel Wright resigns over providing Mike Duffy with $90,000 to bail him out of his Senate expense fiscal foible. That act showed a complete lack of judgement on the part of the chief of staff. More seriously, since the Prime Minister claims he knew nothing about this $90,000 personal gift it demonstrates that he is out of touch with what happens at the operational levels of his own office. 

The Prime Minister tries to distance himself from all this controversy. But the fact remains that he chose his chief of staff.  He chose the people for senate appointments. He is the person who has gone through his seventh press officer, and he is accountable for the selection of who gets Senate of Canada appointments. His appointments are all currently in hot water. 

With so many foibles it may be time for the Prime Minister to take a course in personnel management. Obviously his judgement for selecting people is lacking. No matter how hard he or his handlers try to distance the Prime Minister from all of this controversy the fact his he is ultimately accountable for the actions of his staff and appointees.

It would be refreshing if the Prime Minister actually admitted that his judgement in choosing these senators and staffers is at fault. That might actually get him some sympathy votes in the General Election in 2015. 

Then there is his promise to alter, change and improve the Senate of Canada. In eight years in power he has not moved one centimeter on this file. In fact he has made the Senate into a laughing stock. Senators who actually try to do something feel truncated and frustrated. More evidence of poor management by Stephen Harper.

Then there is the grumbling in the backbench of the House of Commons. Many Conservative members feel that their views and opinions don’t matter even when voiced in Caucus. Conservative members are frustrated. They are subject to the most tight party discipline in the history of the Canadian Parliament. The executive branch of parliament has become much more dictatorial. It is frankly an old fashioned top down management style that in the Age of Information it is a simply passé way to manage people. Stephen Harper doesn’t seem to realize that.

The Stephen Harper management style is to never be wrong even when things go bad. He is not a collaborative person or at least he doesn’t give that impression. He may be a charming guy in private if you get to know him but his public persona is one of remoteness and control.

When he tries to keep himself dry as the current senate rainstorm continues it demonstrates that when there is trouble he distances himself from the fray. His management style is unfortunately top down and controlling. He does not portray that he is open to discussion.

Why is this? I think it is because of his right wing view of the world. If you hold that everyone is looking for ways to waste public funds you create a centralized bureaucracy where all decisions end up at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to protect the public purse from profligate waste. This act destroys flexibility and certainly truncates any sense that Ministers of the Crown have to exercise their own take on problems and legislation.

The Harper style stifles initiative because decision making is largely focused in the rarified air of the PMO a place where people are worn out by 24/7 work schedules that grind people down to the point that they make dumb errors in judgement. Hence Nigel Wright, normally a smart guy with lots of private sector savvy simply dropped the Mike Duffy ball. Spin has become more important than substance and Prime Minister Harper is now wrapped up in what I call Spin Doctor Blowback.

Spin Doctor Blowback is a condition in time when your public and media relations are no longer credible. You are seen by the public and the media as obscurers of fact and the truth. Your every action is suspect. Recipients of your press releases know that the usual spin has now slipped into managing information and worst yet, permanent damage control. You have no integrity left to work with.

The PMO is in this state. Their credibility is shot. How can they hope to generate a good news story about the Senate of Canada or its ultimate reform? By kicking their miscreant senators out of Caucus they are saying they cannot control these people and what is going to happen to them. They are trying to distance the Prime Minister from the fallout. If integrity still reigned in the PMO the Prime Minister would carry the can for his errors in judgement. He is ultimately accountable not only to his Conservative Party but to the people.

This week the Prime Minister is on his annual Northern Canada tour. The mess in Ottawa continues while he is away trying to generate good news stories. The Auditor General has now decided to explore the fiscal practices of the Senate of Canada for all its members. Senators Duffy, Wallin, Brazeau and also Liberal Senator Mac Harb are launching legal actions. Some of these miscreant senators may now be of interest to the RCMP.  

Is it too cheeky to suggest that we may be experiencing Part 1 of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s promises to reform the Senate? Perhaps out of crisis and auditing this pork barrel institution will provide Harper with a way to implement his unarticulated promised reforms. Now that could be a way to counter Spin Doctor Blowback for the next Federal Election in 2015.

© 2013 Tom Thorne, All Rights Reserved.

Auchindrain Township Museum. Will it become a victim of the economic turndown or be seen as an opportunity for Scottish family history tourism?

Auchindrain Township Museum offers a living insight to Scottish Highland life.

Auchindrain Museum: A financial crisis may mean closure of this important Highland Scottish resource.

by Tom Thorne

I must admit a strong bias concerning the fiscal fate of Auchindrain Museum. I descend from Mary Munro the daughter of Martin Munro and Janet McVicar. In 1779 they lived in this township farm with several other families. In 1789 she married John Munro from Drimfern another similar township in the Glenaray. Their first child Duncan Munro (1790-1882) is my fourth great grandfather.

Perhaps you say, so what? 

Well if you are a Scot and your family originates in Argyllshire then you may very well value this important historical resource if you knew more about it. However, if you are simply of Scottish origins then this open air museum is an important place to preserve the way of life of Highlanders from the earliest times through to the 20th Century.

I finally visited Auchindrain in April 2013. It was a moving experience for me to tread between the houses and barns on this site and finally enter the house of Martin Munro where my ancestors lived in the 18th Century recorded as they were in a Census done by the Duke of Argyll in 1779.

No amount of family history research done on line or through books could replace the experience of walking from room to small room in the house of Martin Munro and Janet McVicar. 

Admittedly, not everyone will connect this deeply with this museum. Many will see it preserving the way of life of Highlanders in a very general way. They will appreciate, even without a strong family connection like mine, seeing a way of life that has disappeared as the multiple family townships that Auchindrain preserves and celebrates fell into ruin as more larger general farms expanded sheep, and beef farming and in that process replaced the old ways.

These days most people are engaged in the present state of Scottish life. The past is submerged as the old ways as Scotland figures out whether it wants its independence. Europe, Scotland and the rest of Great Britain are reeling from economic problems with no quick fix in sight. So when it comes time for the past, budgets are cut back or even eliminated.

Museums and other cultural institutions take a fiscal hit first. They are defenseless easy targets unless they are defended by public outcry and action. Auchindrain is one of many Scottish institutions where funding is now reduced or perhaps even drying up completely. Faced with stretching every Pound, even a Scottish nationalist party in power believes it must get out the red pencil for culture and heritage funding. Local governments are equally strapped for funds.

So what is to be done to save important institutions like Auchindrain? First the politicians have to see that without its culture in place and its Highland heritage properly supported any notions of a Scottish state with any ambition to be independent and unique from other parts of Britain, is a fleeting prospect. On the other hand many Scottish politicians of all stripes know this as they pass budgets that force government funding departments to make difficult decisions.

Auchindrain is a major part of the core of how Scotland developed. In the worst excesses of the Jacobite period culminating in the horrific Battle of Culloden in 1746 and its subsequent pillage of the countryside, the townships survived in some form preserving Scotland when all things Highland were forbidden. Tartans could not be worn, bagpipes could not be played. The clan system was dismantled and clan chiefs such as Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat were beheaded at the Tower of London in 1747. The Scottish culture was stressed by external forces that they had difficulty to control in some ways just like today. 

Without some kind of structure in place rural Scotland would have died out completely. And even this social structure was stressed further by later clearances of the people from the land creating Scotland’s biggest export, its people. The townships like Auchindrain enabled people to survive not only as farmers but in trades such as shoemakers, carpenters, stone masons and fishermen. 

My Argyll ancestors did all of these new jobs while living in townships like Auchindrain and further down Loch Fyne at Minard. People torn from the land tried new ways of making a living.  These multiple family townships were like small villages and the fabric that held the countryside together with strong family units often closely related through marriage.

Auchindrain managed to survive as an active farm until the 1960’s. As a result its buildings are in good shape and can be used to set up a model of how Highlanders lived in these places from the 17th Century to our recent times. Scots need to know their history in a living, breathing museum that presents Highland rural life.  Auchindrain provides that service to schools, citizens and many of the Scots diaspora that come to seek their roots as tourists.

Cutbacks and constant funding crises are short sighted. It’s time to breakout and bring more tourism dollars to Scotland.

Most of Europe is still reeling from the economic downturn. Jobs are scarce. Government revenues are down, years of profligate deficit financing are still being dealt with, and each Pound or Euro of revenue brought in by governments has to be assigned carefully to aid the recovery.

Cutbacks in funding for places like Auchindrain are not the way to aid the recovery. In fact, cutbacks of this kind are counter productive to the recovery gaining hold and continuing. What is needed is a rethink of cultural institutions and how they fit into education, and how they link to money earners like tourism and family history research.

One of the best ways to begin the promotion of the Highlands as an attractive visitor destination is to completely examine the business of family and cultural history and how it is presented on the internet. Auchindrain should have this connection to existing family history resources at Scotland’s People. 

Right now we have many good websites each promoting their own activity. However, few of these websites recognize the power of cross promotion offered by the World Wide Web.

If we examine Auchindrain’s website we see an organization set on providing information only. It needs to be motivational, educational and transactional.  A simple change could be that it sells its own tickets on line and for a fee electronic books and materials about the people who lived at Auchindrain. Properly cross promoted with its sister site  Auchindrain’s People, the combined site could become a major Scottish resource about the townships, how they were organized and how visitors connect to family history.

Now cross promote this improved resource to Scotland’s People and you have a major online resource that enables users to search find and connect to the Highlands. Each search purchased on Scotland’s People could provide promotions at the bottom of the page for places such as Auchindrain. The traffic on this important site needs to be used to promote the history of the Scottish people to its users. 

Another cross promotion should be to Scotlands DNA website and other resources of this kind that are connected to the Auchindrain experience. There needs to be a new multi-organizational website created designed to build vital cross promotional activities for Scottish genealogical, historical and cultural institutions. Not only does it promote the individual activities such as Auchindrain but it also shows how to build a tour of the Highlands by walking, bus, car rental, train or ferry.

In Argyll and Bute, the Archive at Lochgilphead needs to be more focused into family history tourism with a presence at Auchindrain through cross promotions online and physically on site. The visitor centre at Auchindrain should maintain its books and materials but expand with packaged materials from the Argyll and Bute Archives done simply with iBooks software. Both of these organizations live hand to mouth for funding they simply need to help each other. There also has to be a strong on line cross promotion to the Scottish National Library.

Inveraray Castle needs to cross promote Auchindrain with a major permanent exhibit of the 1779 Duke of Argyll Census cross linked to Auchindrain and the other townships. This exhibit would enhance the Castle and Auchindrain. My recent visit to the Castle found it a very old fashioned museum with static displays. It should be a focus to promote Argyll history and family history study. This book The Census of the Inhabitants of the Duke of Argyll's Lands in 1779, by Eric Cregeen, was published by the Scottish Records Society, 1963 and needs to be re-published on CD, online as an iBook and in print. It is a major resource to Argyll township life in the late 18th Century.

Governments need to provide funding either from taxes or from Lottery funds. The activities suggested in this brief article need a proper business plan done. BBC Scotland needs to plan for a major 12 part series covering Scotland’s People activity, sites like Auchindrain, DNA family history work and many more related topics. 

This series could be a co-production with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation  (CBC), TVOntario, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), New Zealand and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States.  

The Scottish diaspora made a huge impact on these countries and a television series would heighten awareness of Scottish family history resources and most importantly, build tourism of the best kind where the tourists link strongly to Scotland because they belong.

Here are some websites you can explore about Auchindrain Township and Scottish family history.

Auchindrain Township Museum Website: http://auchindrain.org.uk

Auchindrain’s People: http://auchindrain.wikidot.com

Scotland’s People: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

Scotland’s DNA: http://www.scotlandsdna.com/products

© 2013 Tom Thorne, All rights waved. Please use this article to help the Auchindrain Township Museum.

Duncan Munro moves south to Dumbarton from his Highland home in 1818.

The Clyde Estuary showing the places where the Munros and McCunns lived.

Family history 2: Exploring the Dumbarton Munro Family.

Duncan Munro comes south in 1818 from Inveraray.

by Tom Thorne

We don't know the exact month or year that my great great great grandfather Duncan Munro actually came down to Dumbarton from his Highland Inveraray Glenaray Parish where he was born in 1790. There was annual traffic on established trails that brought  cattle, sheep and farm labourers from the Highlands to southern Scotland. Perhaps Duncan found work on one of these trips and simply stayed on. He was skilled shepherd by the time he arrived in Dumbarton. He learned his trade working with his father John Munro on Drimfern Farm in the Glenaray, the valley of the Aray river that flows to Loch Fyne at Inveraray.

We do know that he married Janet McCunn in 1818. She came from Roseneath a village on the peninsula across Loch Gare from Helensburgh. Janet was born in 1783 and was 35 on her marriage day. Duncan was 28. Janet’s late age for marriage didn’t affect her fertility. In the same year of their wedding (it may have been the reason for the marriage) she gave birth to their first child Agnes on 4 July 1818.  The second child was John born in 1821, and then Peter born in 1823 (see Family History 1) and finally Archibald born 1825. I descend from Archibald’s marriage to Helen Buchanan Mitchell and their second daughter Janet born in 1858.

We know little about where Duncan and Janet actually lived in the early years of their marriage.The fact that they were married in Dumbarton suggests that is where they lived and worked and that is certainly the case from the 1841 Census onwards. Janet McCunn’s father Peter McCunn and mother Agnes McFarlane lived on Fern Brake farm in Rhu Parish in the Helensburgh-Roseneath area close to Dumbarton. All of these towns and villages are on the Clyde River Estuary where it turns towards the sea. 

Peter McCunn died in 1809 and Janet’s mother Nanny (Anne) and sometimes also Agnes McFarlane died in 1820, according to the grave stone put up by their son in law Duncan Munro. This stone is in Rhu Parish Cemetery, Plot 71.  I found their stone on my trip to Scotland during April 2013. The stone was lying down on the grass and had it toppled the text side down I would have never found it. The stone was also covered with lichen and the only word that could be seen when I first located it was  “CUNN”. I scraped off the lichen with a 50p coin revealing this text:

DUNCAN MUNRO

IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER IN LAW

PETER McCUNN

FARMER FERN BRAKE

DIED APRIL 1809

AND NANNY McFARLANE

HIS WIFE DIED JULY 1820

Duncan Munro erected this gravestone for his McCunn parents in law.

The stone was also surrounded by several McFarlane graves and this was the another clue I had to intensify the search in that area of the cemetery since I had no cemetery plan to find Plot 71. 

How well Duncan knew his father in law is debatable. His marriage to Janet McCunn in 1818 suggest that he may never have met him since Peter McCunn died in 1809. The sentiments on the gravestone suggest that he did know him before his marriage to Janet.  Was Duncan in the Dumbartonshire area before the marriage? In 1809 Duncan would be 19 so it is very possible. 

Earlier documents dating from 1780 show three Peter McCunns living on farms owned by The Duke of Argyll in the Roseneath area. This part of the Duke’s census of the people living on his properties in 1779-80 only provides the names of males over 12 years old and so is almost useless to discern very much about the Roseneath McCunns or the McFarlanes of that time. 

However one farm that one Peter McCunn lives on is called “Ferncarry” and the men “over 12” living on it include: Andrew McFarlane, Donald McFarlane, Duncan Campbell, Duncan Campbell junior, John Campbell, Donald Campbell, Duncan McAllum, Dougald McFarlane, Archibald McKeller, James McKeller, James McKeller and Peter McFunn.

Peter McFunn or McCunn are interchangeable surnames in the late 18th Century. My guess that this is the right Peter McCunn comes from the name of the farm “Ferncarry” which is close to “Fern Brake” found on Duncan Munro’s memorial grave stone to his parents in law. The number of McFarlane men listed on this property is also a clue. However we can never really know because unlike the 1779 Duke of Argyll’s Census done in Argyllshire no women with their maiden surnames, or their children are recorded .

The Roseneath area McCunns (or McFunns) are also concentrated on Barber Farm with Turners and Chalmers families. One of the men, Duncan McFunn may be Peter McCunn’s father but these obscure records leave only tantalizing guess work and speculation. 

At this time we are also plagued with no record for Peter McCunn’s marriage to Anne (Agnes) McFarlane, however all their children are recorded and all of them were born in Rhu Parish, Roseneath:  John McCunn 1775, Archibald McCunn 1780, Janet McCunn 1783, Mary McCunn 1787, Peter McCunn 1789, Dugald McCunn 1792.

An aside: Dugald McCunn’s daughter, Jane McCunn, age 6, is found in the 1841 Census living for some reason with Janet McCunn and Duncan Munro at “Spouts” the shepherd’s cottage high on the hills behind Dumbarton and Old Kilpatrick. This child opened up the discovery of  her father Dugald McCunn and his wife Jane McKeller (another Roseneath 1780 surname) through their marriage record in 1828 that take us to Inverkip Renfrewshire just across the Clyde River from Dumbarton. Jane McCunn, was born in 1834  at Old Kilpatrick very near to where she is found with Duncan and Janet Munro in 1841. This suggests that her parents lived nearby (walking distance) to the “Spout” shepherd’s cottage. Jane also had a brother Daniel McCunn also born in Old Kilpatrick in 1836. There were also McKellers living at Roseneath in 1780 Duke of Argyll Census.

By combing birth index records one Peter McCunn was born about 1753 which would make him 56 at his death in 1809. We do better with Agnes (Anne, Nanny) McFarlane who is likely the daughter of Daniel McFarlane and Katherine Wilson born in 1754.  This is a strong choice because her son Dugald’s first son was also Daniel and this would follow traditional Scottish naming patterns.  

Agnes McFarlane McCunn died in 1820 when she was 66. Duncan Munro unfortunately recorded only Peter and Agnes’ death years on the stone at Rhu Cemetery which makes it more difficult to find the birth years of his parents in law.

Next we explore the lives of Duncan and Janet Munro and what happened to their family from 1841 to the turn of the 20th Century.

© Copyright 2013, Tom Thorne, All Rights Reserved.