MANY of the recent news stories relating to music tuition in Scottish schools have not been optimistic.
As this newspaper reported in January, rising tuition fees for pupils interested in learning music have led to an increase in those dropping out of classes.
More than one-third of councils in Scotland put their fees up, or introduced them, last year, and experts were warning that this could lead to widening of the gap between the rich and poor, with only the wealthy able to develop their talents.
More recently, a report by The Music Education Partnership Group and Creative Scotland cautioned that more than 100,000 pupils in Scotland were missing out on music tuition because of high charges or a lack of tutors. Children in certain parts of the country find it harder to pursue an interest in music, the report added.
In January, the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee recommended that music tuition should be free to all.
Read more: Herald Diary
None of these concerns were conceivably on the mind of Robert Stirrat, a technical teacher at Glenwood Secondary School in Castlemilk, Glasgow, who in 1959 decided to give up at least some of his leisure time in order to teach the fine art of drumming to pupils.
The Bulletin visited the school in February 1960, when Mr Stirrat’s scheme had been going for a year. The drumming class now had no fewer than 22 members.
The photograph shows him teaching some of the rudiments to female pupils, using a bench in the school’s technical department.The real thing was also available, though: another photograph run in the Bulletin showed a 14-year-old pupil almost dwarfed by a particularly large drum.
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