I read the Commission on School Reform report on behaviour in Scottish schools ("Ministers must ‘lift pressure’ on head teachers with new guidance", The Herald, September 23) and it's quite frightening.
The statistics relating to violent behaviour in class, both verbal and physical, are almost impossible to believe. I’m certain that most parents have no idea the malevolence teachers have to face day in and day out, not just in the “big” school, but now starting as early as in Primary 1.
I was a teacher and retired in 2006, a good 10-15 years before the real rise in pupil misbehaviour became a problem, but I have a daughter, son-in-law and daughter-in-law who are at the chalkface now and regale me of the attitude, disdain and lack of respect a rising minority of the children display on a daily basis. Though it has worsened since Covid, it was creeping in and the main root cause in my opinion, and in the conclusion of the report, is simple. Bad parenting. As straightforward as that.
Parents no longer want to, or more likely can’t, say “no” to their offspring. They spoil them and so readily support their child’s complaints about the school and its teachers, and have no idea how important it is for them instead to actually support the school. These are the children who on a daily basis, disrupt almost every class they are in, interrupting the learning of all the others in the class. They are loud and at times violent to the teacher. And still, the parents won’t hear a bad thing about them.
Here is a fairly simple solution. Remember, it is the parent’s duty by law to ensure their kids are educated. So, send unruly disruptive children home for a week. Provide the parent with simple suitable Maths and English worksheets to use with their little “darlings”. Let them see the difficulties teachers face each day. Continue to suspend them for a week at a time till the parents eventually hold up a white flag, surrender, visit the school, guarantee future good behaviour and finally, apologise. Sorted.
Tom Strang, Barrhead.
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We need united front on autism
President Trump's recent foray into the medical world is welcome ("Streeting: Pay no attention to Trump’s claims on paracetamol link to autism", heraldscotland, September 23). There can be little doubt that some of the effects of modern life is causing various illnesses.
My daughter was up staying with us for a short break and we talked about the number of children classified as special needs. She is a retired primary head who still goes into schools occasionally. We have two grandsons who are affected by autism, one mildly, the other severely. Something is causing this and as we used to say, prevention is better than cure. We have the tools today to identify what factors cause autism as well as any other disease. If we could get someone like Elon Musk to turn his attention to finding causes and harness all the people who run marathons etc for charity we could identify all these factors.
If we listed all the factors which we can think of that might affect pregnant women we have the computing power to list every permutation of these factors after manifold classification by a series of dichotomies. There is no use asking the drug companies to do this as they would not make money.
Unfortunately we seem to lack politicians to push any such project but surely we must have someone.
Jim McAdam, Maidens.
Think low-tech on Rest and Be Thankful
With reference to Kevin McKenna's recent article ("There’s nothing to be thankful for: the locals living with Scotland’s most notorious road", The Herald, September 20), it may be worthwhile pursuing a low-tech solution to the Rest and be Thankful problem.
I understand that the quantity of unstable soil and rock above the A83 is in the order of 100,000 tonnes. This is no big deal in civil engineering terms and the soil and rock could be removed by a combination of mechanical and hydraulic means. This would eliminate the risk of further landslides. If properly planned and resourced the work could be completed in a shorter time than more sophisticated and expensive solutions. Also, if people are concerned about denuding the hillside, they should look at the barren beauty of the Torridon mountains.
When some people hear the sound of hooves they think of zebras. Others think of horses.
James Caldwell, Glasgow.
Time to rein in property factors
For months now our property factor has been refusing to account for its stewardship of nearly £25,000 in its care.
Excuses given range from the person involved being on sick leave, on annual leave, on bereavement leave, a need to discuss it with their finance director. This obfuscation naturally gives rise to suspicions that all is not well with our money, but the only remedy available to us under the relevant legislation is to lodge a formal complaint, then a second formal complaint and to allow the factor a total of nearly seven weeks to reply before we can involve the regulator.
It is time to update the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 to give it much sharper teeth.
Brian Green, Edinburgh.
Fergie? Really? Oh, that Fergie...
The adverse publicity concerning Sarah, Duchess of York ("Fergie apologised to Epstein after threats", The Herald, September 22) makes it important to point out sooner rather than later which "Fergie" one is proceeding to comment about. I have heard some conversations get into something of a fankle in the absence of such clarification having been mentioned at the outset. The two individuals sharing that nickname do not otherwise have much in common.
The daughters of the Duchess must feel that their affection for their mum, and their dad for that matter, is from time to time stretched.
Moreover, the people of the City of York must be wondering what they did to deserve the association.
Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.
Dancing disappointment
I was disappointed not to see Nigel Farage in the new series of Strictly. Perhaps he is too busy leading the country in a merry dance to attend. Martin MacKinnon, Blanefield.
On a wing and a prayer With the seagull summit under way in Inverness ("Funding of £100,000 to ‘control seagulls’ announced ahead of key summit", The Herald, September 23) it looks like those pesky varmints have had their chips.
Peter Wright, West Kilbride.
Jagged edge
I find it strange that many people refer to an injection as a "jab". I always understood that a "jab" was a dull blow administered by boxers which did not break the skin. An injection does, however, penetrate the skin and is therefore a "jag".
Margaret Pennycook, Glasgow.
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