ALISON Rowat's question "Sir, why was I taught nothing about Scotland's history?" (The Herald, October 25) was the same question I asked my teacher and in reply I was told not to be impertinent. The subjects Alison was taught, the Russian Revolution, Peterloo and so on, were the subjects I was taught; l kid you naught, the word "Scotland" was never mentioned once in the five years before I sat my Higher History.

My children fared little better, although they were educated within a stone's throw of Bannockburn, Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument.

What other country in the world would have shown such appalling neglect of its past? And actually, it is not just Scotland's history of which so many children were left in ignorance; apart from a nod to Burns, our literature and poetry are also not well enough known and properly taught in their own country and are often better appreciated in countries around the world.

Ruth Marr, Stirling.

Blame it on anglicisation

ALISON Rowat states that she learned "embarrassingly little" about Scotland’s past during her education. The answer can, I believe, be encapsulated in one word: anglicisation.

Confirmation of that is found, for example, in the comments of Lord Cooper in 1949 when he referred to the fact that a Scottish student could actually graduate in History without any knowledge of the history of Scotland. It is clear that situation had not improved very much in the ensuing 40 years when one had in 1989 the Scottish Centre for Economic and Social Research observing: "Scottish children are probably unique in learning more about the history, literature and culture of another nation than they do of their own."

Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.

Read more: How the history of Scotland managed to pass me by

The wisdom of our elders

HAVING been a school pupil rather earlier, I imagine, than Alison Rowat, these years being 1941-1952, I can attest to some degree of failings in the teaching of purely Scottish history distinctly separate from British as a whole. I am sure this would equally apply to my peers in Welsh and Northern Ireland classrooms.

Nevertheless, in secondary we had an excellent history teacher who did impart specific Scottish matters to us particularly in regard to the Wars of Independence and the Jacobite rebellions, stripping away much of the romanticised imagery that featured, as an example, in the works of such as Sir Walter Scott.

After school hours there was much to be learned in library books if one was sufficiently interested.

Most of my generation also benefited from listening at granny's knee or other elderly relatives who, I would venture to say, had a far-reaching understanding in all subject matter that had concerned Scotland in the past.

John Macnab, Falkirk.

Enlightened by Macphail

I WAS staggered to read that Alison Rowat had learned no Scots history at school. At secondary school in Edinburgh from 1957-1963, our standard history textbook was Macphail’s History of Scotland. We did also learn about events furth of Scotland but the core of our teaching was Scottish history.

Eric Begbie, Stirling.

Making the grade

LET me correct Alison Rowat. She wrote: "I could blame school. I did history at O level and Higher and do not recall being taught anything about Scotland..."

I contend that she did not do history at O level. She did history at O Grade.

Severino Camillo, Airdrie.

The course of history

UNLIKE Alison Rowat, when I took Higher History, the Darien Scheme and the Act of Union, Advantages and Disadvantages (now there’s a can of worms) were part of the course work. I can only assume that this is due to the fact that the events were still fresh in the memory when I sat the exam.

Jim McSheffrey, Giffnock.

An unwelcome mandate

INCREASINGLY Net Zero is being revealed for what it is: government direction of how people must live their lives, heat their homes, holiday and travel, and what and how much factories and commerce must produce and supply.

Take the ZEV Mandate - the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate - for example. Although the Prime Minister changed the phase-out date for purchasing new diesel and petrol cars from 2030 to 2035 he left the ZEV mandate in place; it takes effect from next year. In 2024 every manufacturer must ensure that at least 22% of their sales are electric. In 2025 that percentage rises to 28%, 33% in 2026 and 80% in 2030. If manufacturers fail to meet these arbitrary targets, unless they can purchase allowance from other manufacturers (unlikely since they are their competitors) they will be fined £15,000 for every diesel or petrol they sell above the target. If this is how a Conservative government behaves I shudder to think what Labour will come up with as it tries to enact the unhinged World Economic Forum's Net Zero Accelerator.

William Loneskie, Lauder.

Extreme weather is nothing new

REFERENCE Margaret Forbes' letter (October 23), I suggest she read a book entitled The Great Moray Floods of 1829.

The "Muckle Spate" that occurred on August 4, 1829 was the most extreme flood recorded in Scottish history and extended from Inverness in the north to Montrose on the east coast and apparently its impact was severe with devastation to agriculture and small towns widespread and extensive.

Sir Thomas Dick Lauder at the time said: "Nature can seldom be regulated or controlled in one way, without running rioting some other."

And what about Noah who built an ark in preparation for the arrival of the flood that occurred circa 2350BC?

Extreme weather appears not to be a modern phenomena.

Brian Bell, Kinross.

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The eh? levels

IVAN McKee, writing on the subject of progressive taxation ("Progressive taxation needs to be much more than just a sound bite", The Herald, October 25) talks about "digitisation of services, removal of duplication and complexity across quangos and breaking down suboptimising silos" (pardon me!)... and for those of us whose first language is English?

No wonder we sometimes don't know what our MSPs are talking about.

Bill Brown, Dumfries.