MAY I make a small but practical contribution to the revamping of Scouting/Guiding badges or indeed, more generally, of the primary school syllabus (“Girlguiding to revamp badges”, The Herald, May 18)?
As a Cub Scout I spent many futile and frustrating hours coming to grips with the sheep-shank and the clove-hitch and so on for my knot-tying badge; all without the slightest need nor desire to use such entanglements subsequently. Rather I suggest the substitution of the very practical requirement most of us will have sooner or later to be able to tie an ordinary bow behind our backs and in the most inaccessible parts thereof. This is certainly an acquired and badge-worthy skill.
A recent visit to the local day-surgery unit rekindled my appreciation of the need for this altogether more practical skill. I refer of course to the fastening of the negligible, infamous theatre gown fixed by tapes, secured by bow at the back. This not only requires knot-tying skills which the mere mortal does not naturally possess but requires contortion of the arms and shoulders which could easily result in the unpractised doing themselves a serious mischief. Of course there is never any help to be had; the nursing and auxiliary staff sensibly not wishing to involve themselves in so delicate a situation.
It makes sense in preparation for later need to acquire this skill from the earliest time when learning new skills is easy and the body lissom. And there is an altogether more satisfying reward too. It avoids the ultimate embarrassment resulting from inability to make the necessary fastenings of having, in frustration, to process with a rather saggy and wrinkled derriere exposed to the wonderment of the ward.
Darrell Desbrow,
Overholm, Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbrightshire.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here