Get angry at work conditions
- The teacher must become more angry at working in conditions which no factory worker would put up with, said Stanley Allan, Scottish Schoolmasters’ Association president. Somehow, he must come to realise that it is not enough to feel spiritually satisified at coping with two shifts a day with part-time classes of nearly 60 pupils each, all for a salary which in many cases was the lowest in Western Europe for similar qualifications.
Predominance of French criticised
- The overwhelming predominance of French, which is studied by three times as many fifth-year students as all other languages put together, cannot be defended on educational or practical grounds, said DL Shaw, of Edinburgh University’s Hispanic studies department. A long overdue step in the right direction would be an end to the indefensible practice of offering Spanish as an alternative to French for less linguistically able pupils.
FE college opens in Edinburgh
- Stevenson College has opened in Edinburgh. The city now has Napier and the college doing advanced work, and Stevenson and Telford on less advanced work. The new college caters for nursery nurses, builders, motor mechanics, coopers and overseas students learning English. Principal David Dick is determined that Stevenson should not follow what seems to be the natural course of FE colleges, to grow upward and leave craft courses behind.
School leaving age hotly debated
- There is no going back on the Government’s decision to raise the school leaving age, said Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher in London. Elsewhere in the paper, Banff Academy rector Robert Scott said that, without more money for teachers and accommodation, such a move would be a cynical piece of political chicanery; pupils would pay the price in nervous exhaustion, and the EIS’s James Baxter said Renfrewshire could be left short of 400 teachers.
Emotionally disturbed pupils
- In dealing with emotionally disturbed children, the teacher must be prepared to step quite a long way outside his traditional role, said AS Gobell, head of Harmeny College, Balerno. Staff at his school received no special training, but there was an effective natural selection; those who stood the pace acquired simple rules. He spoke at a conference for teachers of handicapped children, but a record attendance showed others were attracted by the theme.
