BEING one of the “class traitors” who sent their children to a private school it is interesting to read your readers’ comments on the debate on fee-paying schools (“Advantages enjoyed by private schools simply cannot be justified”, Kevin McKenna, The Herald, September 16 & Letters, September 19). Readers seem reluctant to mention the principal reason for the system and that is social engineering.
We send our children to these institutions to define the peer group they will spend their formative years associating with and which will form the framework of their social network later in life. We are telling our children this is your place in society; the children you study alongside are your role-models and the lifestyle and professions of their parents is what you should aspire to emulate as you are one of them.
Academic achievement may be a spin-off from our financial investment in our children’s education. Perhaps the environment in the private sector may encourage individual achievement but we all know that is only part of our decision not to send our children to the very same state schools we ourselves went to.
David J Crawford,
85 Whittinghame Court,
1300 Great Western Road,
KEVIN McKenna’s article about his first year as a Glasgow University student in 1980 triggered memories of my own first year there exactly 30 years earlier in 1950, which turned out to be very eventful. (“Freshers’ Week: When The World Is Your Cloister”, The Herald Magazine, September 16).
My first term ended with the news that Scotland’s Stone of Destiny had been “stolen” from London’s Westminster Abbey on Christmas Eve. It then became known that the culprits were four Glasgow University students. Our university was on the front page of newspapers around the world and we basked in the reflected glory (?) of that audacious feat.
January 1951 marked the beginning a year of special events celebrating Glasgow University’s 500th anniversary, with torchlight processions, special events and activities involving students, and we newcomers enjoyed the spotlight.
The last Saturday of January was traditionally the end of Charities Week, when thousands of students dressed up in garish costumes and relieved the public of all their loose change for good purposes. Sadly, that tradition has gone, although today some of the weird outfits seem to be the normal dress for many students.
This was also the time of the Scottish Covenant, signed by more than 500,000 Scots and stirring up a new surge in patriotic feelings. So in March the Rectorial Election at Gilmorehill was of huge public interest, with the popular winner being the Glasgow lawyer Dr John MacCormick, a leading member of the Scottish National Party who had been closely involved in drafting the Covenant. So once again our university was on the front pages of the leading newspapers.
And, of course, at a more mundane level there were the many delights for new students. The Students’ Union provided affordable lunch and bar facilities and a free snooker room. It also hosted the Friday evening political debates and Saturday dances to the music of Bill Lambert’s 15-piece band.
So, with respect to Kevin McKenna, I think I can claim that my freshers’ year was much more eventful and memorable than his.
Iain AD Mann, 7 Kelvin Court,
Glasgow.
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