 We move to the final item of business, which is a member's business debate on motion 2164 in the name of Stuart McMillan on Scottish history and schools. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. Will the members take part, please press their request-to-speak buttons now or as soon as possible, with a place and art in the chat function if they're joining us online. Joining us online is Stuart McMillan. I call him Mr McMillan. Mae eisiau yn ei weldo yn hwnnw i networkwur fel ddydd. Rwy'n meddwl i gydbodaeth eich cigarette a byddai i'r defens? Rwy'n meddwl i'rboxydol i gael ei rhyngwladol. Felly mae gennyn nhw'n ddiddordeb yn cymdeithas? Felly mae gennyn nhw'n ddiddordeb yn cymdeithas. Mae gydbodaeth eich cigarette ac mae ada i ddiddordeb yn cyfrifosol Argynwg i'r cyfrifosol Llanthol gyrraedd. Beidw i gynnwys i ddiddordeb yn cael yng ngyfru gyda'r cyfrifosol Wath-Ry flowing. I would like to pay tribute to him for his enthusiasm and passion for life but also for his hard work to help educate more people about the 1828 insurrection. I know that he certainly was looking forward to this debate taking place and as such I will dedicate my contribution today to him. My angel who stated, history despite its retching pain cannot be unlived but if faced with courage need not be lived again. Anyone who argues for the sanitised version of the truth to suit their agenda is wrong. I don't want our classrooms to be consumed by historical lessons that only tell part of the story simply because the state says so. Historically that has taken place and is in my opinion one of the reasons many of us will often have heard comments from others about the lack of appreciation or understanding of the history of Scotland for good or bad. I've always believed that having a knowledge of the past is crucial for the present and also for the future. Learning about World War II and the atrocities that the Nazi regime ensured that my international outlook on life was there certainly for going forward. Spending time with young Germans as part of a student exchange programme about a teenager and then studying in Dorton University gave me the opportunity to discuss and learn more about the present at that time and the hopes and aspirations for the future. That was always with the backdrop of that sad recent past shaping the future. I admire the generations of German people who have faced up to and also owned their past and dedicated themselves to ensuring that history does not repeat itself. Where does this leave Scotland? Recently my youngest had a homework project entitled Sir William Wallace's hero or traitor. My first reaction was to say that he was a hero. Go on to the Society of William Wallace's website and you can learn more about him and the actions to commemorate him. However, for the educational purposes, the proposed question was right. Why should we automatically consider the often written position of history as the only truth? After some further research, my daughter completed the project and came up with her own answer. I am pleased to say that she did agree with me on this particular occasion, which I can assure you is not always often. My motion mentions the radical war of 1820. It first became aware of this part of our history when I was asked to pipe at a memorial in Paisley in 2004. There always seemed to be events about this in Paisley, Straithing, Glasgow and elsewhere. I had no knowledge of Inverclyde's sad involvement in that part of our history. Speaking to people from Inverclyde about the radical war, it was obviously a part of our history that was a very well-kept secret. However, it was not just my area, it was other parts of Scotland, too. At the bottom of Bank Street in Greenock, there is now situated a monument to those citizens who died in the massacre on 8 April, 1820. John McQuinney, 65, Adam Glyffain, 48, John Boyce, 33, Archibald Drummond, 20, James Kerr, 17, Archibald McKinnon, 17, William Lindsay, 15 and James McGilpe, 8. Those individuals were shot indiscriminately by the Port Glasgow militia volunteers, who were accompanying five Paisley weaver prisoners to the Greenock jail. The radical war was never taught in our school. I was made aware of the events in school about Peterloo and Tollportle. Over many years, the 1820 society has helped to keep this part of our history alive and to bring it to many more people. However, that should surely be a part of our Scottish history, which has been taught in schools for future generations. As George Orwell has stated, the most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history. Our history cannot be rewritten, but it should be told in all of its fullness. A further part of the motion centres in Scotland's part on the transatlantic slave trade. The Parliament has agreed to examine how we acknowledge and talk about Scotland's role in this and also in the empire. Man's subjugation of man is not glorious or positive, no matter how much wealth was generated. All across the country, there are examples of how this vile trade enriched the few. My constituency was a global leader in the sugar industry, as well as having involvement in tobacco and cotton, and the sugar warehouses that James Watt Dock were built long after the abolition of slavery. However, clearly the profits over many years in the sugar industry will have played a part in constructing this iconic building. After that, I voted to ensure that Scotland tells its story. I established a working group to consider the location of a national museum, as I believe that such a facility should be located in Greenock at the sugar warehouses. There are many reasons why the location is ideal, and I have not yet heard of a sound reason why it should be established elsewhere, or even become a network of smaller facilities. If we as a nation genuinely want to tell our story in full, a facility akin to the standalone international slavery museum in Liverpool must be what we aim for. This themed year of Scotland's stories situating such a museum in Greenock would be fitting. Having that type of facility to visit and as an essential visit for all school pupils would certainly help present and future generations to fully understand and appreciate our past. Another reason why I am so invested in this particular project is due to the letter that I received from a young constituent in 2020, where they outlined their experience of the Scottish education system as a black pupil. I was given permission to share the letter with the education secretary at the time, and I have had dialogue with the students since. I know that across Scotland there will be other young people of colour who have had a similar school experience compared to white pupils. They have had a different school experience compared to white pupils. I think that that is rather sad to be quite frank with you. That is why I support a review of racial equality in our schools so that teachers can be better equipped to talk about Scotland's history in its fullness. I believe that a national human rights museum would be instrumental in helping to educate people of all ages about Scotland's role in the slave trade and also the empire. As a former slave abolitionist and Frederick Douglass stated, it is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. I quote Douglass for a specific reason. He toured Britain and Ireland and spoke in Greenock on 10 April 1846 and on 23 January 1860. Why Scotland is not ensuring that this part of our history is fully narrated to future generations? Apart from a small land border, Scotland is surrounded by water. Where is the greater historical education about how Scotland's maritime past generated wealth and inequality, including our involvement in assisting the Confederacy in the American Civil War? That is where the Clyde Atlantic Trust and its campaign to both help to educate present and future generations about the Clyde's Atlantic history is a national story that needs to be told. It too are campaigning to create a museum using immersive technology to help to tell that story. Educational this would be fascinating and hugely important in helping us to understand our trading past. There are many more examples of our history that should be told in our curriculum. I accept that we cannot tell them all, but I do not consider the job of our educators to be easy in this particular regard, which is why I support further resources and support teachers in this task. I will end the speech with one other quote that I believe to be fitting for this debate. It also comes from Frederick Douglass. The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful and virtuous. We have that opportunity to be honest, truthful and virtuous, to help future generations. We owe it to them in memory of those who have gone before us. Thank you, Mr McMillan. Having not spotted in the chamber, I thought I would reward your acompensate by giving you a little extra time, but we are heavily subscribed this evening, so I would be grateful if members would try to stick to their speech limits on that basis. I call Kenneth Gibson, who will be followed by Murdo Fraser again for around four minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I congratulate my colleague Stuart McMillan on securing this evening's debate. The teaching of history should be exciting and inspirational. The great French philosopher and historian Voltaire said, We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation. In the 18th century, European thinkers challenged old ideas about almost every aspect of life, arguing that the way forward was to use reason when seeking answers. Scotland truly was the Athens of the North. Pupils could do worse than reading Arthur Herman's How the Scots Invented the Modern World, the true story of how Western Europe's poorest nation created our world and everything in it, which examines the Scottish Enlightenment's profound impact on intellectual thought across the globe. If we are to build the confidence of our young people, the incredible achievements of our forebears should be discussed. In Ayrshire alone with Alexander Fleming, Henry Falls and William Murdoff, who discovered penicillin, fingerprinting and invented gas lighting respectively, Stuart McMillan's Greenock had steam engine inventor James Watt. It's sad that 15 years into an SNP government, the Enlightenment's Scottish invention and discovery is not at the core of Scottish history teaching. What other nation would omit such astonishing contributions to humanity? The cringe remains. In primary school, I was lucky to be taught by Missman Creeff, whose passion for Scottish history brought us the decisive Pictish victory over the Northumbrains at Nectons mere in 685, Athelstanford, the main of Norway and wars of independence. Missman Creeff also focused on the slave trade, particularly the role of the tobacco lords whose wealth was based in Virginia and the Caribbean plantations, where many Scots were overseers or indentured while in chattel slavery vast numbers of Africans toiled. Sitting to school was completely different. The 1970s history curriculum was absolutely dire. No Scottish history was taught at all. Claudius's successful Roman invasion of England and the resistance of Caractacus was covered, but without mention of Calgacus and Mons Gropius, Hadrens and Antines walls were the subsequent collapse of Roman Britain. The centuries in which the Anglo-Saxons overran and transformed much of Britain were completely ignored, as was the establishment of Delrida, which eventually grew into the kingdom of Scots. Alfred of Wessex burning the cakes, paratified in the Vikings, was followed by a leap of centuries to the life of a medieval English peasant. They ate a lot of herring barley onions while growing walnut and mulberry trees, apparently. There was no mention of their place in the feudal system, frequent famines, pestilins, violence or grinding poverty that beset their lives. Henry VIII's closure of the monasteries was covered, but with no word of Scotland's own reformation. We then jumped to spend three years learning the social history of England from 1815 to 1914. Peter Louw, the poor law reform act, Catholic emancipation, the Chartists, tall puddle martyrs, life in the dark satanic mills of Northern England, etc. Labour history, but without the industrial revolution, New Lanark, Highland Clearnces or the potato famines in both Scotland and Ireland, which fundamentally shaped the Scotland of today. Of the Union of the Crowns and Union of Parliament's Scottish Enlightenment rise of Britain's empire and Scotland's role in it, Scotland's myriad pioneers in medicine, engineering, science and exploration, nothing. It could mean worse, if St Gerrard's in government, they would spend an entire year studying the history of Salisbury town, much to the pupil's bewilderment. The snapshot of Scottish history being taught now at national 5 and higher are much better than before, but remain limited. Teachers select one of five topics from the wars of independence, Mary Queen of Scots in the Reformation, Treaty of Union, Migration and Empire, Great War. It is still desperately unambitious, given years of learning available through our pupil's school life. History should start at the beginning and be honest what's-and-all. How did we get here, out of Africa, to the early settlers' arrival in the wake of the last ice age to the great migrations of the Celtic tribes, Roman invasion, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings? St Columba's arrival in 563 spread Christianity. Kenneth McAlpine's victory over Pickland, the slow unification of Scotland, to more or less within our present mainland boundaries in the 10th and 11th centuries and in the Clyde and Hebrideen islands in 1266 and Nolan islands in 1472. Especially now, the cataclysmic impact of the Black Death, which killed up to half of Scotland's population in 1350, reformation, union of the crown union of parliaments, industrial revolution, risings, clearances, empire, and their perspective and impact and indeed their importance should be covered. The lives of kings, queens and everybody else. Scottish history is exciting, but only if we make it so. Thank you Mr Gibson. I now call on Mardo Fraser to be followed by Rona Mackay for around four minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I start by congratulating Stuart McMillan on securing this debate and thank you for his motion, which I was very happy to sign. Thank you for his excellent opening speech, which I thought covered the ground very well. I very much enjoyed the breathless tour de force that we've just heard from Mr Gibson, summing up thousands of years of Scottish history in four minutes. Well done. Is the subject I've got a real interest in, I remember when I was very young, reading a battered copy of Walter Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, which despite being two centuries old, summed up early Scottish history very well. Is the subject I've read, I've studied, I've written about, I've lectured in and still received small sums in royalties from a book that I wrote some years ago, still available on Amazon, and an excellent read I would commend to the chamber. Stuart McMillan raised some really interesting points in his opening contribution. I think that it is important that the history that we teach in schools has to be set in international context, so we have to have Scottish history in the context of British history in the context of European and world history. But I absolutely agree with the thrust of both speeches we've heard so far, that we need to start with our own history, understanding who we are as a people. I simply don't think that we have enough of that in Scottish schools, and in that respect I would agree with Mr Gibson. I know that there are aspects of Scottish history that are taught well. We hear a lot about the wars of independence, the highland clearances that are taught, but whole swathes are totally ignored. Stuart McMillan talked about the radical war of 1820 when Kenneth Gibson talked about the Enlightenment, my passions in the 17th century, the great struggles between royalists and covenanters in Cromwell, that were the start of the modern world where we settled the big questions about how we would be governed, what would be the relationship between King and Parliament and the people, how people would be free to worship their god as they saw fit, and always were settled, including the relationship between Scotland and England in the course of the 17th century and early 18th century. None of that is taught in Scottish schools. It is completely ignored as a topic, and yet it is vitally important. I think that if we are going to have well-rounded people coming out of school with a proper understanding of their country and where it came from, we need to get that right. Two other points I will make, Presiding Officer, because time is short. Where history is taught in schools, we need to make sure that it is accurate. I was appalled to see recently that there was a report of materials being used in Scottish schools about Churchill sending the tanks into George Square. Churchill did not send the tanks into George Square, Deputy Presiding Officer. That is a myth that has been disproved by all historians, and yet somehow it ended up as a material in a Scottish school. That is simply not good The further point that I will make is one that has been raised by Neil MacLennan, former president of the Scottish Association of Teachers of History, one of our most experienced and authoritative voices in this area. He has raised concerns about the impact of politics on the teaching of history, and in particular the impact of nationalism, because in his view there is a danger that this is making Scottish history to parochial, presenting a sanitised version of Scottish history. The example that he gave was one that Neil MacLennan referred to on the teaching of slavery. The Atlantic slave trade whereby materials being used identify Liverpool and Bristol as ports being used for the slave trade, but there is no mention of any Scottish ports such as Glasgow or Greening. In his view, that is very unfortunate. In 2011, the Royal Society of Edinburgh called for a review of history teaching in schools to try to address some of the concerns that we have heard today in this debate. That call at that time was rejected by the Scottish Government. I think that it is now time for that issue to be revisited. Already in this debate we have heard from different perspectives concerns about the way history is being taught. I think that it is time for a full refresh of history qualifications, a revision of the curriculum for excellence, to make sure that our young people leaving schools get a proper grounding in the history of their country and make sure that that history is accurate, unfair and balanced. Mr Fraser, I now call on Rona Mackay, who joins us remotely, and Ms Mackay will be followed by Martin Whitfield. Ms Mackay, around four minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Firstly, I thank my colleague Stuart McMillan for bringing this debate to the chamber. It is clear from the number of speakers lined up just how important it is for this subject to be debated. Presiding Officer, I didn't like history when I was at school and pretty much everything that I now know about Scottish history. I have learned over the decades since I left school. I learned more about the battle of Hastings in Oliver Cromwell and I did about the battle of Bannockburn or the Highland Criances. I have tried to analyse why I found the subject boring, and I can only conclude that it is because I had no interest in learning a timeline of dates of battles, the battle of Hastings springs to mind, nor the succession of the royal family. To be honest, I still have no interest in those things. I realise that my generation learned little or no Scottish history, the history of my own nation. What I have learned since my school days, though, I find fascinating. Scotland has a rich, enlightened history that I could never find boring. These days, I lap up the fascinating histories from countries all over the world. Presiding Officer, I am aware that history taught throughout schools in Scotland now is more relevant, but no nation should allow the erasing of its history being because it was erased in the curriculum, and I find that shocking. Erasing women from our history was common, too, and it is only now gradually beginning to get better. We did learn about a handful of our great Scottish inventors—Alexander Fleming and John Logebert, for example—but I would love to have known about Elsie Engels, Jane Haining, the Edinburgh Seven, Victoria Drummond and so many more women pioneers to whom Scotland is indebted. I would also like to know about the part that Scotland played in the slave trade, burning witches, the clan wars and the clearances, just some of the historical events where we hardly covered ourselves in glory, but it should have been taught. However, those stories were not told and therein lies the problem, because young people deserve to know the full picture of their nation's historical past. As Stuart McMillan's motion acknowledges, it is just as important for children to know about their local areas' historical past, as well as Scotland as a nation. Presiding Officer, Hunter's Hill House and Bishop Briggs, in my constituency of Struth Kelvin and Bearsden, was the birthplace of Scotland's father of democracy, Thomas Muir. Sadly, the house has been sold off to developer and left to rot to the shame of our local council. Thomas Muir was a towering figure in Scottish history, yet I learned nothing of him at school. There is a local campaign group, the Friends of Thomas Muir, who do great work in my constituency in promoting his memory today. I believe that his legacy is now taught in schools in eastern Barchonshire, but too many people of my generation will be completely unaware of this incredible man. In conclusion, Presiding Officer, I welcome any move that will educate our young people about Scotland's history, worse than all, because without knowing where we've been, we don't know where we are now and how far we've come. I thank the many teachers, community groups and museums throughout Scotland who recognise that and are dedicated to educating our youngsters on their history. Finally, I thank Stuart McMillan again for securing this important debate. I thank Stuart McMillan for his commitment to the Scottish Government. Thank you very much indeed, Ms Mackay. I now call on Martin Wakefield, who will be followed by Siobhan Brown again around four minutes. I am very grateful, Presiding Officer. First, I extend my thanks to Stuart McMillan for collecting this debate, but I also echo his condolences to his constituent for the work that they've done. It's a great shame that he wasn't able to listen to the discussion here in this Chamber. I'm reminded, of course, of what Cicero said about history, which is that we study it not to be clever in another time, but to be wise always. I find myself standing probably in some opposition to what I've heard today. I almost sought to intervene on Modo Fraser to ask, so what do we drop from the curriculum to fit it all in? The curriculum for excellence was, with thought drafted when it came to the aspect of history, or indeed the past, as it's described in there, within social studies. I wanted to raise the curriculum for excellence benchmarks and to talk about what it is that teachers look for when they're seeking an assurance that a young person is sufficiently knowledgeable in an area to move on. Indeed, if we look at the third level, which is the start of high school for most children, four out of the 11 aspects that a teacher needs to find has to be specifically about a Scottish aspect of history. When we move to the fourth level, it becomes only one in 16. I wanted to look at the reason why that is the case. To do that, I think we need to turn to article 29 of the UNCRC, the right to an education and what it means to be educated. Indeed, article 29 says that our young people should build their respect for other people and the world around them. In particular, they should learn to respect their rights, rights of others, freedoms, freedoms of others, their parents, their identity, language and values of countries, including their own. If they take but a microscopic view of Scottish history, they will not only fail to actually understand why we are where we are today, but our young people will also fail to appreciate the global history that has in fact formed the position that we are in today. My focus is only on Scottish history. I absolutely accept, and I think that everyone else does, that we must be within a context of British and European world history. It is just getting the Scottish aspect of that that writes what is worse than all, and covers a greater depth in Scotland's history, as I have already stated. I am grateful for that intervention, because I am concerned that, whenever history is discussed, people talk about it from their point of view of history rather than the role of our teachers, which is to inspire our young people to look at history in their own right, to find their own history, which happens in primary schools where we trace the ancestry of families, the people around who put it. They look at the close knit around the school, around their community and a widening understanding of what has happened. So, I had the privilege to teach in Preston Pans, where we taught the Jacobite uprising because of the battle of Preston Pans. Very important, both to those young people who live there, but also to a wider understanding of history. But I come back to the intervention I newly made on Murdo Fraser. What is it we are going to miss out to guide these young people to where they are? Because what we seek through the curriculum for excellence is to teach the skills that they need to analyse a situation and bring their own opinion to it. How you teach those skills should rightly rest with the teacher, the pupils themselves, what interests them, the school and their community. So it may be for the young people of Preston Pans that the battle of Preston Pans is a way to learn about primary and secondary evidence and also to analyse why an event happened that is heralded by some people from one view and another from a diametrically opposite. So, to conclude, Deputy Presiding Officer, because I know time is tight, there is a concern where politicians influence the history that is taught in schools. I would urge us to take a slight step back. Let us trust the teachers of Scotland, but more importantly, let us trust our young people in Scotland so that they can say what it is they want to learn, and through that we can teach them the skills to be the greatest historians we need to be so that they understand where we are today. I'm grateful. Thank you very much indeed, Mr Workfield. I now call our next speaker, which is Siobhan Brown, who joins us remotely, who will be followed by Alasdair Allan for around four minutes, Ms Brown. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I want to thank my colleague, Stuart McMillan, for bringing this debate to the chamber as well. I grew up in Australia, and although Australia has an interesting albeit shorter history, I've always been fascinated with the long and detailed tapestry that is the history of the country that I now call home, Scotland. When you mentioned my constituency of air, people initially picture Robbie Burns, Scotland's most famous son, and quite rightly so, but there's so much more to my constituency than that. But before I turn to the importance of local history, I want to take you back to the classroom. I think that, as my colleague Rhona Mackay alluded to earlier, when talking to my friends and family who went to school here, I often hear echoes of how much they hated the subject of history. Let me say that history is much more than royalty, dates, places and acts of Parliament. It's people, it's ordinary people like you and I, it's our ancestors, it's our cultural identity, it's our sense of place, it's who we are. Let's take a trip to air first and talk about the subject that fascinates most children, witches, and of course, witch trials. Now, saying that you might transport yourself to Salem, but stay where you are, did you know about air witch trials? While 20 women were tried and found guilty in Boston town, women and children were being persecuted in air. As they were around Scotland, 4,000 of them, due to religious intolerance and mass hysteria. Children looking at these stories can read the names, which are still present in air town, Bell, Campbell, Cunningham, McCall, Sloan, Thompson, Wilson and Young. That is how history can captivate. How much more interested will a child be when they see that they or their relatives have similar names and realise it could have been them if they'd lived in those days? To capture the interest in the young, we must bring history home and local. After that, it's much easier to look at the national and world events. Moving to Preswick and the first home of the Open Golf Championship in 1860. Here, we have Scotland's oldest barrenial borough dating back more than 1,000 years. There are connections to King James VI and Robert the Bruce, who are said to have drank the water there. Ask any school pupil in Preswick and I'm sure they'll be able to tell you. When you picture Troon, you picture its rich golfing history. Take a trip to Crosby Church, a site that has been there since 1229, in one form or the other, and finds tales of Scottish kings and the assassination of James VI's illegitimate son. With the advancement of technology, we can immerse ourselves in history at the click of a button from anywhere in the world. We have wonderful Facebook pages such as Remembering Old Air, which was set up by Richard Devine and now has close to 24,000 followers worldwide. Richard and the team who run the page have a deep knowledge and passion for local history in air and also deliver local historical tours, telling stories that are personal to the town and can have up to 60 people attend each tour. I'd love to see our local schools connect with these groups to learn more about local history, things that they'll never find in the school textbooks. There are also dark times in local history. Indeed, my colleague included that in the motion, the importance of educating ourselves on Scotland's role in the transatlantic slave trade. Our children should be encouraged to be proud of the good and reflect and learn from the darker periods. We cannot forget our own political history. In 1315, Robert the Bruce convened the first meeting of the Scottish Parliament in the Church of St John of the Baptist in air. Let's teach our children more Scottish history. Teach them local history. Take them to the places steeped in it. Most importantly, tell the stories about their ancestors. We will all become history one day, so the stories and teachings must continue. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms Brown. I now call on Alasdair Allan, who will be followed by Stephen Kerr. Dr Allan, for around four minutes please. Presiding Officer, can I first congratulate Stuart McMillan for bringing this important debate to the chamber? There are many arguments for teaching more Scottish history in our schools. It is potential to empower young people, as we have heard, at being chief among them. However, let me come at this debate from a particular angle. Things are certainly getting better, and let me say that the outset and give teachers credit for it. However, Scots have, until very recently, often learned so little about their own country's history that the situation could and has been described as profoundly abnormal. I seem to remember a survey a few years ago that found that only around half of Scots had, to take one example, ever heard of the declaration of our growth. This is not normal. It is not readily possible to imagine a Norway where anyone had not heard of the Aidesville constitution or a France in which a soul had not heard of the Bastille. Yet Kenneth Gibson's account of what was not taught in secondary school history to his generation or to mine does explain a lot. Why is Scotland such an outlier in all of us? The fact is that, until very recently, the teaching of Scottish history or Scottish literature or Scottish geography has relied almost entirely on the enthusiasm of individual teachers. There was in the past simply no official expectation that children and young people in Scotland need to learn anything very much about Scotland. Perhaps some of the blame for that lies in the way that we have peace to think of history. Both the bits that we like and the bits that make us shudder at ourselves as a story. Yet there is no shortage of stories of either kind in Scotland, from the ancient houses at Scarabray to the art of the Picts, the statutes of Iona to the battle of Largs, the James II of Scotland blowing himself up with his own canon in Roxburgh, to the growth of a school in every or most parishes, the sorry and financially interlinked stories of the slave trade and the highland clearances. We should ultimately teach this stuff, not just because it might promote the development of any particular skill or create any particular economic benefit, but because it is interesting and because it makes you think. The evidence from schools around Scotland is that young people find it interesting too and it inspires them in all sorts of other areas of the curriculum. We should teach it because, without some of that information, young Scots will find it impossible to locate themselves in Scotland's story. I have to counter Mr Whitfield. None of this is a case for teaching less world history and we will, I hope, have no more complaints from others to that effect in this Parliament condemning school trips to Banachburn. Let's get past the anxieties that some people seem to have. Teaching young Scots about their country is a political act. It isn't, but not teaching them about it, as many of us in secondary school were barely taught. Most certainly is a political act. In 2011, perhaps the most hostile crowd that I have ever faced in this place was when I proposed successfully that young Scots doing higher English should have to learn about at least one Scottish writer. That was an idea that a number of members seem to regard the sign that the barbarians were not so much at the gates as melting the gates down and making them into weapons of mass disruption. I believe and I certainly hope that we are getting beyond all of that anxiety about teaching about Scotland in schools. It is entirely reasonable for any country to know its history, good and bad, and not to be afraid to do so. I support the motion. Thank you very much indeed, Dr Allan. Before moving to the next speaker and despite the commendable efforts of all speakers today to stick to their time limits, I am conscious of the number of speakers that still want to contribute to the debate and therefore I am minded to take a motion without notice on the rule 8.14.3 to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes and I would ask Stuart McMillan to move such a motion. Are we all agreed? Excellent. The debate is now extended by up to 30 minutes and I call Stephen Kerr, who will be followed by Denny Minto for around four minutes. Thank you, Mr Kerr. I presume that that does not mean that I can speak for up to that period of time, I am sure that you correct me. I just say how much I have really enjoyed this debate and I want to commend Stuart McMillan not just for securing debate but for giving a really fine speech to open this debate and set a really balanced tone to the way that we are discussing it. I would like to talk about my love of history. I love history and the reason I love history is because inspirational teachers imbued me with a love of history and it's true that there probably aren't enough classroom hours to cover the curriculum that was outlined by Kenny Gibson but it is possible to inspire young people to leave a classroom with a desire to know more by doing their own research and I think that that was part of what Martin Whitfield was saying in his speech which I also enjoyed greatly. I have to say by the way that my love of history is entirely amateur, unlike my colleague Murdo Fraser, who is a professional because he's receiving fees from his royalties from his book which apparently is available on Amazon. Do you want me to repeat that? That's a gratuitous advertisement. But when we're celebrating Scotland's history, we really must be careful, as has been pointed out by a number of speakers, not to examine it solely through the lenses of nostalgia or ideology. That is particularly true of course when it comes to teaching history in schools. We must encourage pupils to have a broad and critical understanding of our history as they study history to ask the searching and difficult questions about our past, emphasising the importance of creating as accurate a picture as possible based on bona fide research and historical evidence. Sadly, I fear the way that history is sometimes being taught in our schools does not live up to the standard and I wish to return to the theme that my colleague Murdo Fraser mentioned earlier, quoting the same source, Neil MacLennan, the senior lecturer. Of course I will. Minister. Can you name a specific school where he has such concerns? No, I think that it would be wholly improper of me in this debating chamber to entertain such a question. However, nationalist nostalgia and ideology are increasingly seeping into the curriculum, creating a one-sided and inaccurate representation of our shared history. I mentioned earlier that I am going to quote from Neil MacLennan, senior lecturer and director of leadership programmes at the University of Aberdeen. The example of the slave trade was already cited by Murdo Fraser. I might quote exactly what he says. If you read guidance from the SQA, the curriculum gives examples of slave ports like Liverpool and Bristol, but the slave trade was not solely centred on England, and it goes on, McLennan asks, for Glasgow to be inserted. Of course I will. Kenneth Gibson. The reaction to secondary school, we never get one hour of Scottish history, so it was bound to be focused on Bristol and Liverpool in the slave trade. In actual fact, we did not have the slave trade at secondary school, but we did get, as I said in my speech, the tobacco lords in the slave trade when I was at primary school 50 years ago. Stephen Kerr. I think that we are about the same vintage, so I am not going to say anything insulting here, but I am talking about the current curriculum, not the one that you and I probably went through, and he has asked for Glasgow to be inserted, but that has not happened. I asked why, in the newspaper article reported on the Herald on Sunday, McLennan said, is it because the system is still bureaucratic, even minor reforms are too hard to do? That is very worrying, if so he says. Is it because of power balances, that those incubated positions don't fancy those changes, or is it because of a number underbelly of parochialism linked to nationalism where those changes are unpalatable? Of course I will. Stuart McMillan. I thank Mr Kerr for taking the intervention. I am quite sure that Mr Kerr heard my opening contribution. I could not have been any stronger in terms of what we need to do in terms of the transatlantic slave trade. I did read the same article that Mr Kerr has done, but I am sure that Mr Kerr would also acknowledge that my contribution in this debate, how I set this debate out, is that there is no narrow nationalism, there is no imperialism, none of that nonsense that was about having education, there is no history, so that we can educate our present and future generations so that they know what Scotland was like in the past. Stephen Kerr, I can give you most of that time back. Thank you very much. Actually, this is not the first time that Stuart McMillan and I have had an exchange like this in this chamber. I recognise what I am saying. It is not necessarily representative of the feelings of every nationalist, let alone every member of the SNP that sits in this chamber. I accept that, but within the nationalist movement there is a fear that presenting a more accurate representation of Scotland's history will create a negative narrative, and some even go as far as to describe this as talking Scotland down. I am sorry, but I am sure that Stuart McMillan and I would agree with that. That is plain nonsense. Stuart McMillan is very brief. That is a very brief one. Mr Kerr, I am not arguing for a more accurate, I am just arguing for an accurate version of history. I am not ascribing those views to any particular member in this chamber tonight. I doubt it, Presiding Officer. I am well over time. I can tell that I will wear your patience even thinner. We have a proud history, but not a perfect one. We should take pride from our many achievements as Scots, but also learn from our mistakes. Not only will that present a more accurate picture of Scotland's past, but it will aid us in our aim to develop Scotland in the present for the better. I, too, would like to add my congratulations to Stuart McMillan on securing this debate. It is extremely poignant to be discussing the teaching of Scottish history in our schools when we have just lost a foremost historian, Professor Ted Cowan, a popular and influential champion of Scots history. I met him in connection with some of the many times he took to television to spread the word beyond the academic sphere. For many of us, Ted's tracing of the origins of the American Declaration of Independence back to the declaration of our growth in 1320 was fascinating and inspiring. It is fitting that we pay tribute to him in this debate about the importance of understanding Scotland's past in order to shape its present and future. Prior to being elected to serve our Gile and Bute, I managed the Museum of Islay Life, and I should declare an interest here as I remain a trustee. Stuart McMillan's motion emphasises the importance of such local museums in revealing the continuity of shared values and culture that our communities enjoy, that makes every community unique and special, which my colleague Siobhan Brown touched upon. Let me open the doors of the Museum of Islay Life and reveal some of its treasures, which are of Islay, but also give the wider links that Martin Whitfield raised in his contribution. First of all, there is a 12,000-year-old flint tool made shortly after the last ice age by misolithic hunters and gatherers. They were Islay's first inhabitants and just one of many waves of immigrants who have made Islay and Scotland what it is today. Then we come to the illicit still. Today we pay taxes on the whisky we make on Islay, but the Islay's vastly successful whisky industry has its roots in an ancient skill imported from Ireland and honed over centuries by entrepreneurs and innovators, a continuity of culture that has profound impact on Islay's economy. Today we export whisky, but sadly Islay once exported people. Poverty and clearance made sure of that. Immigrants flooded abroad, and those islanders that remained had kinfolk in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America. So we come to a century-old hand-sewn stars and stripes. Islay folk did not just serve in World War I. That conflict came to Islay's shores in 1918, with the wreck of two troopships and the loss of hundreds of young American soldiers and their British crews. The people of Islay behaved with great courage to rescue men from the sea. They gathered the bodies of the dead and buried them with respect. Four local women sat up all night sewing a stars and stripes to honour the dead before the first mass funeral. That flag, gifted to an American president, now belongs to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. However, as it is so much part of the history of Islay, it has been displayed in the island's own museum since 2018. That year, I worked with the fantastic primary and secondary school teachers and children to bring that story alive. Like Martin Whitfield has talked about, the curriculum for excellence and the evidence and the stories and contradictions were all brought into those lessons. It was clear that we needed to show how their community was part of one of the great events of world history. Their island is not just a dot on a map, but a community with a unique and valuable take on the world, past and present. All communities are like that. My constituency is blessed with many, many great local museums. Lismore, Ling, Seal, Ochindre and Kilmarten are just too many more to mention. All have their unique stories to tell. As Stuart McMillan said, this is Scotland's year of storytelling, a fitting time to celebrate the stories that have come down to us from our past and enrich and inform the lives that we lead today. Ted Cowan was a storyteller. As a professor and teacher, he inspired generations of Scots historians. As a writer and charismatic broadcaster, he informed and enthralled a much wider audience. There is still much that Ted Cowan would have wanted to be done, and this motion addresses that. Scottish history is certainly not all glorious and good, but it made us who we are, led us to where we are now, and guides us towards where we are heading. I thank Stuart McMillan for securing tonight's debate, which has been absolutely fascinating. I enjoyed the contributions from across the chamber. I would also like to extend my condolences to George Brice and his friends and family. I am sure that he would have enjoyed tonight so much. I thank Jenny Minters too for evoking a wonderful holiday that I had in Islay this summer, and I was able to visit the Museum of Island Life. I know that she was instrumental in getting that set up and working on it over the years. I thank you for my enjoyment of your history in Islay. History is so important in understanding the culture of our country, but that includes telling the history in its full and often challenging truth, and from the perspective of all. That means acknowledging injustice to women, to children, to ethnic minorities and the impact on the conquered, as well as the conqueror. Not for the first time in this chamber, I turn to my experience in visiting the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg in 2017, a profound experience. The museum is seen as a national and international destination and centre of learning, where people from all around the world can engage in discussion about and commit to taking action against hate and oppression. The two aspects that I took from the museum are the educational engagement, the way in which they work with young people. It is demonstrated by one of the exhibits that is a real court experience that young people can have when they take on the role of a jury member, hear real evidence and reach a conclusion. They then hear the true life verdict and the arguments of the lawyers and the judge involved, and they examine their actual ruling and their understanding of it. The second aspect, perhaps more important, is bearing honest witness to the past and what colonialism has meant for Canada as a country. That included recognising the injustice on first-nation people and the history of the damage, particularly forced adoption into a culture in a religion. We are still uncovering the truth of that, as shown by the recent demonstrations of anger. Indeed, some of the monuments that I visited in Winnipeg were recently vandalised with people as more of the truth of that history came out. That is something all modern nations are having to deal with and examine. I do not know how to square the circle at all, and I know that Ted Cowan would have had his views. Tom Devine spoke about the National Library of Scotland sanitising some of the colonial language as, quote, an anachronism by imposing the values, and in that case the terminology and language of the present on the past two centuries or more ago. The British Empire is a fascinating part of our history. Most of the people in Scotland, for example, those who left Scotland at that time, were suffering from desperate poverty, living in subsistence farms, working in mines, mills and so on. They were not part of any necessary oppression of other peoples. They themselves were suffering quite desperately for much of their lives. That is absolutely why we have to go back to my national thoughts. That means that we acknowledge justice to women, to children, to ethnic minorities, to those who suffered under the regimes of the past. We have to learn from those, so thank you for raising that with me, Mr Gibson. The Museum in Canada also tells the story of the genocides of the world, including the Holodomor in the Ukraine, shamefully yet to be recognised by the UK Government as a genocide. However, what laser focus that history puts on the current crisis on the Ukrainian border, and that is why history is so important. Education and bearing on it what honest witness to those principles have influenced my work with local North Lancer councillors, Danish Ashraf at Anaggy MacGowan, when they presented a motion asking for education to include an honest look at the colonial history of our country. I was delighted when North Lancer councillor agreed to that motion and embraced the message of Black Lives Matter. That is why the curriculum is so important. Whether we are talking about Scarab Ray or Maze Howe, or we are looking to the Roman history—I have a Roman bathhouse in my constituency in Strathclyde Park—or through the wars of independence, the Covenanters and the Reformation, through to our modern history, where we can celebrate the Glasgow girls and their success in preventing dawn raids of asylum seekers and achieving the right to further and higher education in our country. What we must ensure for our pupils is that they are fully informed, they are educated in analysis and reflection, and they are confident in their own look at history so that their actions today will lead to a better future through their understanding of our past. Thank you very much indeed, Ms Adamson. I can assure members that the repeated references to Scarab Ray have not gone unnoticed in the chair. I call on Faisal Choudhry, who will be followed by Stephanie Callan in around four minutes, Mr Choudhry. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I would like to thank Stuart McMillan for bringing this issue to the chamber. I very much appreciate that this motion acknowledges the growing number of people who believe that the teaching of history should include an honest representation of the more shameful aspects of Scotland's past, such as its involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. I should start by emphasising why it is so important to include this in the teaching of Scottish history. It is not an attempt to top the country down. As some critics in the wider national media would have us believe, it has two clear constructive purposes. Firstly, to allow students to understand the horror of the past with a view to ensuring that they are never to be repeated. And secondly, to ensure that students develop a realistic appraisal of how far we have come as a nation and as a society, and how far we still have to go. A proper teaching of these aspects of our history gives context to the ongoing struggle for racial justice, both here and around the world. Scottish history lessons must also find a place for the voice of Joseph Knight, a former slave and a domestic servant whose successful court case in Edinburgh in 1977 was founded on the principle that no man is the property of another and for the voices of Quaker Omen who spoke up in Edinburgh against slavery, supporting evolutionist Frederick Douglass in his speaking tour in the 1840s, craving his campaign messages on the side of earthersets in Holyrood Park, not so far from where the Scottish Parliament sits today. Changing our approach will allow students to understand why that struggle proceeds at different speeds from one place to another. To see how its legacy affects people of different backgrounds and experiences in difficult ways and perhaps most importantly to understand how the move towards racial justice from evolution onwards has strengthened us. We are better off as a society when everybody's human dignity is respected. I would like to both highlight and uphold the measures recently implemented in Wales, which seeks to ensure a good ground in black and Asian and minority ethnic studies for every student. This encompasses the study of history, identify and culture. The history component includes teaching of the involvement of Wales in slavery and colonialism. While there are differences in the educational framework between our respective countries, I do not see any reason why Scotland could not aspire to this kind of approaches. I believe this is something that we should move towards and that teaching of Scottish history would be more comprehensive and inclusive for it. I know that this view is shared by colleagues across the chamber today, and I would welcome an assurance from the minister in concluding this debate that can all work together on taking those issues towards. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I add my congratulations to Stuart McMillan for securing this debate today. I believe that to live in Scotland is to live in history. History's a story of us has been born a wee bit earlier. Teaching Scottish history in schools helps us to understand Scotland's place in the world, showing how past decisions still influence and shape our choices today. To illustrate Scotland's love in history, there is no better place to start than my own constituency of Buddingston and Bale's Hill, the birthplace of Scottish trade unionist and supporter of the Home Rule, James Keir Hardy. This proud legacy has shaped my own politics and still links my community to those fiercely progressive views today, more than 100 years after his death. Scotland has forged a formidable history, with an influence in legacy that reaches well beyond our shores, from noble clansmen and powerful monarchs to enlightened philosophers and world-famous engineers and scientists. We are a nation that has survived and thrived on the kindness and hospitality of our neighbours and kinfolk, yet we are also a nation that has experienced the shocking abuse of traditional hospitality, which led to the dreadful massacre in 1692. Our history is, at one, global and indigenous, with a mix of kinship and conflict, and history in schools allows our young people to explore these associations between the local, the national and the global too. Our lives and our histories have also shaped a sense of place, and our polythistory teachers have taken learning from the classroom into the local community by forging innovative links to local organisations, including museums and historical societies. It takes partnership to deliver a truly inclusive curriculum, and forging and strengthening these partnerships lifts history teaching beyond textbooks and has the potential to listen new and important information on who we are and where we come from. Presiding Officer, I too, Luke Stewart, would like to commend the efforts of organisations working to this end in my constituency. That includes Hamilton, Muslim Trust, the Low Parts Museum, Lord Wokassel and the Lancashire Family History Society. One really good example, as well, is the wonderful online multimedia archive, Powerful Heritage, and their work with local schools has uncovered the heritage stories of Muslim and South Asian migrants to Scotland. That includes a fascinating account of the provenance and setup of the new students and mosque in my constituency, and that was led by a long-time resident of Holy Town, Gullum Suclan Sudeik. Presiding Officer, I said earlier that to live in Scotland is to live in history, and this for me includes ensuring the teaching of our nation's darkest historical moments, as already has been mentioned by others. However, none more so than our significant involvement in the abhorrent transatlantic slave trade, as well as Scotland's part in the often brutal legacy of the British Empire. It is clear that, without that knowledge, we cannot fully understand our country's place in the world and why we live the way that we do today. History will always be a source of debate over whose stories we tell, and that is how it should be. However, skills and local historians need to burn it together, working towards an understanding not just of history at large, but of diverse traditions and communities that have never been properly recognised and remembered. Learning through history, and specifically local history, has immense potential to help me to meet the aims of Scotland's curriculum for excellence. As we strive to develop the four fundamental curriculum capacities that we want to see in our children—successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors—the key is exercising flexibility to keep learning meaningful, accessible and enjoyable. In closing, Presiding Officer, let us bring the gripping narratives of Scotland's past alive to make sense of our world today, and to inspire the next generation of Scots to become the responsible and ethical leaders of tomorrow, locally, nationally and globally. Presiding Officer, and to Stuart McMillan for bringing this debate and to all my colleagues' contributions on a subject that is of great interest to me, not least due to my previous employment as a teacher having taught a little bit of the subjects that have already been mentioned. When learning about history at school in England as much as in Scotland, I was curious and a little bit disappointed at the lack of content regarding events and significant figures of black and minority ethnic heritage and culture. Whilst we have made some progress in diversifying our curriculum, we still have a way to go in making sure that we can all see ourselves in our shared histories and, of course, her stories. I certainly didn't. Teachers have the privilege of inspiring curiosity not only to ask the questions of when and where but also of the who and the why. Primary schooling is well placed to not just consider dates and timelines, but to bring to life the stories of people and communities in relatable, creative and compelling ways. I have certainly tried to do so over the years. The flexibility of the curriculum for excellence will always lead to debates over the syllabus, but we must, however, promote the gathering of evidence, questioning sources, analysing and understanding the implications and impacts, learning the lessons of the past to inform our tomorrows. Of course, the past is not all all right or, indeed, all white. Black Lives Matter has certainly brought into sharp focus the need to recognise that education is the root to tackling prejudice and building a more just and understanding society. Instrumental to that is the role of key individuals and organisations. I will mention the coalition for racial equalities and rights that has been at the forefront of supporting Black History Month and developing materials to help teachers to plan inclusive history lessons and their work should be recognised. Black History Month helps to recognise the people who have often pioneered civil rights in tackling racial discrimination and telling the stories of the who enables the learners to explore the why of attitudes and cultures of the past to inform our futures. Equalities Minister Christina McKelvie said that it is important that we recognise Scotland's role in these painful parts of history to ensure that we learn from the mistakes and atrocities of the past and make sure that they are not repeated. I will take an intervention. Kenneth Gibson, if you could address the front. Kenneth Gibson, could you please? Yes, apologies to the president. Do you agree that focus on the transatlantic slave trade should help to educate people about modern slavery in the world today? According to the United Nations, 40 million people in modern slavery, including 20 million now in the Indian subcontinent, one in five people in Mauritania, many in the Middle East, should help to create a greater focus among nations, including Scotland, on dealing with that particular issue of the modern age, as well as looking to what happened in the previous centuries. Thank you, Kerry Gibson. I do agree with that. What is unfortunate is the fact that maybe in the past we have not had robust enough debates to learn the lessons from the past slave trades in order to allow this to go on, but I accept what you have said there. Faith communities have played a significant role, too, and I would like to mention the Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre, which is based in Gardnut Hill. The first purpose built synagogue in Scotland is a beautiful category A listed building in the heart of Glasgow, which is now open to learners from not just Glasgow, you are welcome to come from Scarabray and from Islay as well, telling the stories of real people that go back over 200 years. Based in Glasgow, the Colourful Heritage Centre also provides an excellent online resource, highlighting histories and stories primarily of South Asians and Muslims within Scotland. A wee example that I will share is that, in 1911, the Glasgow Indian Union was established to represent the seamen that worked down in the Govan area, and that was actually before the Red Clyde Siders were established as well. There was indeed a vibrant Lascar community in Anderson in my constituency of Kelvin, a fascinating local contextualised part of history to add to current debates about race and equality. The examples that I give here have been driven from the experience and efforts of our black and minority ethnic individuals and groups, but it is encouraging to see that work being addressed more widely. Museums Gallery Scotland, in collaboration with race equality stakeholders, now recognises and represents more accurate portrayal of Scotland's colonial and slavery history. Lucy Caskott, the CEO of Museums Gallery Scotland, said that Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted the critical need to understand and act on the racial injustice and colonialism that is still prevalent today. I welcome the Scottish Government's support of that collaboration, but I would also like to ask for an update on how that is going. Can you please conclude around now? I will do, thank you. I'll jump right to the end. So, Voltaire, often quoted, including by Kenneth Gibson, looked to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation. Remember that was said at a certain time in history and we need to make sure that we actually live up to that. In an independent Scotland of the future, I look forward to reflecting on the lessons learned from the past to ensure a more just and equal society that acknowledges the contributions of and reflects all of its citizens. Thank you, Ms Stewart. I can't call another motion without notice. I now call on the minister to conclude the debate for around seven minutes. I can maybe give you a little longer if you can weave in reference to Scara Brake. Let me mention Scara Brake at the outset, Presiding Officer. I've never had the chance to visit nor have I had the chance to visit the museum in Islay, so I look forward to visiting both in due course. That has been a really important and very enjoyable debate. It has been very wide-ranging and you have quite correctly reminded me that I have up to seven minutes, Presiding Officer, so I will not be able to cover every point that has been made, but I will endeavour to try and respond to as much of the debate as I can. That should of course start by thanking Stuart McMillan for having brought forward the motion that has allowed us and enabled us to have this debate this evening. I join him in conveying condolences to all those who knew Gordon Bryce. I want to start off with the fundamental premise, which I think we are all agreed on, that learning the context of Scottish history is an essential part of the experience within our school environment. Many people have reflected as they often do, and I often hear their own experience at school and not learning enough about Scotland's history. I can say of my own. I was fortunate in that regard. I was able to be taught a degree of history of my own country when I was at school. That, I am sure that you will be delighted to know, sparked and generated such interest that it was a subject matter that I went on to study at the University of Glasgow, where I should say with regret to Murdo Fraser that his book was not on the suggested text at that juncture. I do not know if it is in my own experience of higher education is probably falling into the historical, Presiding Officer. Having mentioned the University of Glasgow, I would like to quickly join Jenny Minto in recording my own sadness at the passing of Ted County. He was actually one of my lecturers when I was at university and a great and passionate exponent of Scotland's history. We have lost a great champion of Scotland's history in the shape of Ted County. Returning to the position of young people's experience of learning Scottish history at schools, I should say that I understand what we reflect on our own experience, but reflecting on the current experience now is in fact a mandatory element of our national qualifications. There is a wealth of resource to be able to start that experience of learning about our country's history at the very earliest stages of education. I want to respond to some of the comments that were made by members over the course of the debate. As I said, I will not be able to respond to all of them, but a number were made and they should rightly receive a response. Stuart McMillan rightly spoke of Scotland's position in relation to links to the historical slave trade. In particular, Stuart McMillan mentioned the establishment of a museum on slavery in Scotland. I can say that we have an expert group led by Jeff Palmer looking at this area, looking at what form any museum would take, scope whether a physical museum is going to be recommended. It will become clear when the recommendations are delivered later this year, but I know that Stuart McMillan will continue to champion Greenock as a location for a museum, and I would expect him to do nothing less. Turning to the comments from Murdo Fraser, I have to say that I was not surprised given that he took to Twitter to respond to some of the comments that we saw recently that he was speaking in today's debate—notwithstanding, of course, his great passion for Scotland's history, which, of course, would be the other reason he wanted to speak. He mentioned the resource that was established and published by Education Scotland in relation to red clitide. I will recognise that there was an inaccuracy in that, and there is a method by which people can report that. Education Scotland will reflect on that and change it where necessary. However, I do not want anyone having any sense that Education Scotland or any part of the educational establishment will be doing things willfully to deliberately mislead our young people with some form of political agenda. To reassure Murdo Fraser and, indeed, Mr Kerr, who expressed some conservation work in partnership with the University of Glasgow to produce resources across the humanities curriculum area. We can rely on their professionalism and where a mistake is identified. Of course, we expect them to rectify that. That brings me on to—I can give you the time back, certainly, minister. Certainly a latitude to take an intervention. Murdo Fraser. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am very grateful to the minister for giving way, and I welcome the reassurance that he has given. However, I wonder if he would address almost my concluding point, which is the issue of whether the teaching of history needs a proper review at this stage. If he listened to the entirety of the debate from all different perspectives, members expressed their concern that aspects of Scottish history were not being properly addressed in the curriculum. Is not it now time to follow the advice of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and conduct that review? I suspect that all of us have taken part in this debate because we have a passion for Scotland's history. It would be great if we could teach the entire breadth of the historical experience of Scotland. However, I was taken with the point that Mr Whitfield made that we have a curriculum that is designed to imbu and stimulate interest and spark a passion for subject matter to be studied in its wider sense. However, there is no pretending that there is a limit to how much can be taught within the specific context of the school environment. However, I will say—I was going to pick up on the point that was made and released to Professor MacLennan's reported remarks—that our curriculum is not subject to political direction. However, what SQA is currently undertaking is the preparation of a consultation and engagement with teachers of history in Scotland on the opportunities for the teaching of non-European and diverse perspectives within our history courses. That engagement will take place with the relevant professionals. It can, of course, take account of Professor MacLennan's concerns that neither Glasgow nor Greenock were mentioned as a slave trading port. However, I would respectfully suggest that the remission, as some form of political plot, seems a bit overstated. I hope that we can place it in its proper context. I probably extended my latitude as much as I probably can. I have not even been able to talk about the history of my constituency, which I very much regret and hope that I get the chance to be able to do another juncture. Our curriculum will continue to focus on historical, social, geographic, economic and political changes that have shaped Scotland. It will focus on the future. I will save the present also. It is a very generous seven minutes, minister. It is a very generous seven minutes. Kenneth Gibson We need to talk about some of the negative aspects of Scottish history. That is absolutely important, because it should be worse than all. Slavery is an important part of our history. Why are we not teaching about positive aspects of our history, for example our contribution to a world such as the Enlightenment? I had hoped to make a response to Mr Gibson, so he has enabled me to be able to do so. It is not the case that that does not form part of the subject matter. If you look at the Scottish studies award in our schools environment, young people can elect to study, for example, the Enlightenment as a topic within that award. Of course, I would encourage him to do so, because going back to my experience, that is an area that I studied at university. It is itself not without some contention and debate about its place in historical context. The point that I was going to make in concluding, minister, is that we will continue to make sure that Scotland's history is taught to young people, but it is also placed in a wider global context, so that we can ensure that the past informs our recognition, understanding and valuing of the diversity and complexity of the modern world and modern Scotland.