I remember doing the EMU scheme at primary school but I don't remember it having any impact tbh. I was at a Catholic primary school in a very Protestant area and I remember we went on a trip to different churches and the kids from the other school were spitting on the statues in the Chapel. We were quite accepting of the hatred on display and were quite an insular wee community who expected to be the victims of hate crimes. It's mad looking back. I went on to a massive Catholic grammar in Belfast and we learnt so much about the Troubles and about politics and that was a great feeling for me to learn about the civil rights movement and to see what I felt was my community had achieved against oppression.
Nowadays kids do something called Shared education where they are supposed to mix together but again I don't know what the impact is.
I'm from a mixed marriage and my great uncle on the Catholic side was a delivery driver who was robbed and beaten to death by the IRA. I believe the majority of people in NI have very complex identities and we can't be put in boxes easily. My kids are at "protestant" schools because they aren't Catholic and I worried about them feeling left out of all the religious bits of Catholic education. They are very happy and have friends who are all different beliefs and no beliefs. It's not an issue for them.
I do think we need to talk about it to them though. My oldest is 13 and came home asking me if i knew what the troubles were as one of the teachers had told them about it. I was grateful because it started the conversation and I was able to explain to a bit about my experience. I never knew how to start the conversation before. I grew up terrified and believe I was very damaged mentally and emotionally by growing up through the troubles.