When schools observe Dr. Kenneth E. Robinson Day next month, educators expect that there will be a lot less furrowed eyebrows and blank stares.

Students as young as nine years old have been learning about Bermudians -- such as Bermuda's first Chief Education Officer -- who have made a range of contributions to the Island.

Education officials this week told The Royal Gazette this was a part of a new structured programme set up to help students better relate to the curriculum, a key philosophy behind education reform.

"As a philosophy teachers already use the resources which they have which may not be the resources that are particularly for any one subject,'' senior education officer of curriculum, instruction and evaluation Maxine Esdaille explained. "We understand that teachers come with their own knowledge and information and they bring order back into the classroom in addition to what is already supplied by the system.

"Even previous to the cry in the newspapers, some teachers have been teaching local history, black history, African history, and black American history.

What we are doing now is putting into place a more structured and formal way that this becomes a part of the curriculum in any number of subject areas.'' For instance, education officer for social studies John Walsh said, Primary Five students have been using a book written by Bermudians called "This is Bermuda'' as a part of the social studies programme for the past two years.

"It is also a text used by any number of teachers at any number of levels,'' Mr. Walsh said. "It includes some history, some geography, there's even some science in there.

"It is a book that is being very well received. One would hope that teachers will take that and build on it.

Mrs. Esdaille pointed out that the text grew out of the fact that teachers were already teaching local history, local cultural and local science, and wanted to have a resource that was accessible to everybody.

"So they got together and wrote the text,'' she said.

Another textbook which students at the modified middle level or the former Primary Seven level have been using is "Discover our Heritage''.

"It's ahead of its time,'' Mr. Walsh said. "We got this in September, but the actual publication date is September, 1997.

"It is multicultural text. It goes through historical development. The geography is very good. And it comes with a wealth of support material.

There's so much there that people have got a choice. It means that teachers in middle schools can use that to make connections in Bermuda. That text will be used for M1, M2, and M3.

He noted that the book begins with early civilisation, early African kingdoms.

"It also has a section on the growth of Africa,'' Mr. Walsh pointed out. "It also covers Apartheid. So by the time they have finished MM1, they would have gone through the origins of man in Africa.

"It is not a comprehensive study of Africa. That would take volumes. But there's a lot of pathways that students can take when studying it.'' Mrs. Esdaille said the curriculum for upcoming middle schools "includes history and geography of the world, with specific appropriate and correct information about Africa and its contributions as well as European, North American, Eastern and all contributions to the development of civilisation.

"This is currently in place at MM1 and will be in place for the regular middle one,'' she explained.

"The key to that is to have the students relate this to themselves and their country. So whatever it is they're studying in terms of social studies is about tying that back to themselves.

"Because at the middle level students are trying to find out who they are, where they are, and how they fit in to this big world and Island. So many of the issues that are relevant at that time are about identity. So even with the geography, and social studies, and history, we try to help them get a picture of who they are.'' Education Minister Jerome Dill said since the modified middle level began in primary schools in September, he received many calls from parents telling him how excited their children were about what they were learning in school.

"Kids are energised,'' he said.

Mrs. Esdaille added that teachers were also excited about the new programme.

Based on feedback from teachers, she said, it appeared that the changes to middle level education were "answering a lot of people's needs''.

"The MM1 is only a modified programme in primary schools,'' she pointed out.

"So it is even going to be better when we have middle schools.'' Mrs. Esdaille pointed out that education officials were not simply responding to recent criticism in the media about a lack of black history.

"We're responding to the needs of the world,'' she said.

"When we tie in social studies and the African history we hope to have a student who has the resources, knowledge, and confidence to go out and find the answers to questions about themselves. So it is not about waiting for somebody to tell them. It is about making them problem solvers and seekers of knowledge.'' Maxine Esdaille