Built environment education (BEE) uses tangible objects produced by humans, which constitute our built environment (BE) (i.e. buildings, bridges, monuments) to enrich learning for children. Monuments as facets of our material culture can be focal points of BEE. Cultural heritage has been used as a teaching resource in social studies, cultural geography, (art) history, and sustainable development. Although architects use monuments as BEE curricular resource; looking at the existing academic literature the topic is difficult to discern. Therefore, the article will critically reflect on Lost Traces projects - a Bavarian project for school children on cultural heritage. In 23 projects, through creative spatial interventions pupils had an opportunity to interact with historic relics, archaeological traces, abandoned buildings and constructions, rediscover and bring the ‘lost places’ in into the public awareness, thus transforming the relics into a common European future. In order to critically reflect on the practice of architects and urban planners as educators using monuments as a curricular resource, and a learning context, a further debate is needed regarding the understanding of cultural heritage and the educational processes around them as constantly evolving cultural constructs, the role of the educative planners, and the quality of design and planning tools as educational tools.