My trip in UK

I arrived at Manchester on Saturday night after leaving home for 20 hours. I was dead tired by then. Luckily, I could pick up some sleep and was quite myself the next day. I decided to grab some time before the conference to have a quick glimpse of the city.

My first destination was the museum of Science and Industry. Only then I realized or better say remember that Manchester is an industrial town. The museum is huge, something like the Universal studio but hardly charge a penny! Great job! It has altogether 5 towers, each having a focus, like 1830 warehouse, station building, power hall, air and space hall and the main building which is basically on textile industry. I went into the main building first.


The way the narrator talked about the development of textile industry in Manchester was sobering. The condition there at that time was so poor. The noise level was so high and the cotton was everywhere in the air, bad enough to cause you lung diseases, if not cancer. The factories at that time got child labour, getting children who were only 5 yrs old to work. It was because the factory was so cramped that only kids would save space in working. OH my god, imagine the kids now! They even complain of having not enough entertainment, life being boring. Words that come out from their mouth would be like, Why should I? Oh, consider those in the 19th Century please- why should they suffer?

When we were in school, we were always shown the living condition in Hong Kong of 1960s. But compared to the situation of Manchester in the early 18th century, things were far worse. We really have to count our blessing for what we have now!


What interested me after walking through the halls would be the cross subject learning envisaged in the exhibition and the display. It’s not only History; it could be English literature as we are shown ‘Hard times’ by Charles Dickens which narrated the hard time in Manchester. When the display is about the sewage system in Manchester (History again and Physics: motor system of how to pump the water), we have boards and displays about how we should treasure the use of water (Water cycle in Biology and Geography). Then we have global warming at the end of the corridor which is a big issue to discuss and be alert of!


You know what’s on my mind? I’m thinking we should grasp a theme and then do cross curricular projects like these for our 20th School Anniversary celebration! The museum director must be one having worked in education, if not a teacher! Well done!


The weather here is beautiful, cool and breezy. I look forward to the coming conference. I hope the conference can give me inspiration on how to develop e-learning in the school. ‘The world is flat! ‘ So if other people in other parts of the world are doing something good and innovative for their students, I see no reason why in the same time zone, we should not do the same!