One of my relatives used to be a miner in the fifties. He had to crawl in only 18 inches deep (about 45 cm) of space. He inhaled lots of muck down there and this was many years before health and safety was even mentioned. All he had was a hard hat and torch. He died with chest complications and during his time there was an accident in his mine (he was not down there at the time) and many died. I think these days it is a very cushy number compared to what it was like many years ago.

No not at all.

I have heard story's like ''Scooter'' has told in their answer all my life. My dad was a coal miner in Harlan county Kentucky-USA. He worked that job for 30+ years before I was born. He worked back in times when the coal mines were very dangerous... even more so than today. I remember him talking about crawling and shoveling coal at the same time. My dad was the person I looked up to more than anyone else in my life. It wasn't just because he was a coal miner, he was a very strong person who always extended a helping hand to others if/when they needed it. He was not afraid of anything that creeped or crawled on this earth ( lol Is how he put it). He raised me and my siblings by himself (My mom was not around, she did not live with us), and always held down a full time job. I think all miners have that ''something special'' inside them. I respect all miners. I guess they are heroes to some of us, although they would never say that, or even feel that way.

I don't know if miners are heroes but they are certainly extremely admirable for the work that they do, it is both arduous and highly skilled. Many working class jobs are equally hard and yield products as important as coal, metal or precious stones. I am from an area where mining traditionally was the backbone of the economy before Margaret Thatcher's government decimated it. I don't know if you've read George Orwell's "The Road to Wigan Pier" but if you haven't I really recommend it because it's a superb book about mining and miners.

No not hero's. They are doing a job they are usually very well paid for. The real hero's are the soldiers in such places as Afghanistan.

So we just read the book Trapped in English class, and we started talking about how miners are kind of like heroes. They go down into the earth thousands of feet, there's no light and claustrophobic conditions, just to make our lives easier. Do you agree?