These events are great fun for the kids, with Victoriana being a favourite choice along with Tudor titbits and the Second World War evacuee scene.

There is, of course, a more serious side to the exercise, which should form the basis of on-going study into the respective social and historical backgrounds of those days.

But most schools seem to be locked into the three above-mentioned themes, and I'm hoping that new ideas will emerge to give children more exposure to history — a much-neglected field, judging by some of the responses to various surveys among older children and, I must add, a whole raft of adults!

One can only hope that satellite and cable television is backing the BBC and ITV in helping to redress the balance with their handsome helpings of history programmes covering all subjects under the sun — and in outer space.

I'm not an expert on TV economics, but I presume that enough people are watching these programmes to make them commercially viable.

What's worth watching?

Say what you like about the amount of rubbish which is served up on ALL channels, these days we all have access to worthwhile material to back-up the book reading.

Earlier, I mentioned nostalgia as one of the driving points for schools holding these particular theme days.

How long, I wonder, will it be before our own generation's life-happenings are the subject of "Back to the Future"-type time trips?

What on earth will the children of 2058, and beyond, find fascinating in these present hi-tech days?

It's already nearly too late for them to enjoy my childhood's freedom of being able to go off with friends and play away for hours without parents or guardians keeping a close watch on you.

Perhaps they will look back on 2008 as the "golden days", when children could be spoilt rotten with the amount of food available to pile on the pounds.

This wasteful life

With petrol having followed cheap food into the realm of expensive dreams, tomorrow's learners may get a chance to sample transport with only three or four people in the same vehicle.

Those wasteful, private cars will be the preserve of the privileged few.

There will probably be outings to areas where children are allowed to accidentally drop a small portion of sausage roll without them or their parents being given a criminal record.

And, yes, on election days, they can actually know what it's like to put a ballot paper in one of those funny square boxes, which half a century from now will have been dumped in favour of 100 per cent postal and electronic voting — and to hell with the ensuing, rampant rash of electoral fraud...


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