A fine body of men (yes, all men) turned up on Wednesday at the parliamentary education committee’s inquiry into pupil motivation - all union reps whose litany of woes would not have brought a rush of motivated aspirants into the profession.
“Can you tell me a time when teachers didn’t despair?” an exasperated Frank McAveety, MSP and former teacher, asked.
“I think it was about 1942,” quipped David Eaglesham of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association.