Priveledged Prisoners

Reflective

I was so lucky and privileged to go to Glenbarr Primary. An intimate little place to learn, on the coast of Kintyre. Nature all around. Stunning island scenery for all 17 of us to enjoy. Yes a cosy brick building with only 16 children attending, 6 in my year and 6 in my younger brother’s. And the rest sporadically dispersed through the rest, some age groups not represented. We were all seated in our tiny chairs in the one classroom, the other classroom left in darkness. The dinner hall with tempting smells of school made meals. How could I forget our 2 on-site cooks, the lovely ladies who would peel our pesky oranges at break. And at the helm Miss Taylor, a teacher who was so much more than that, an integral part of this almost island community who ensured we learned as much about the outdoors, the countryside, the landscape and nature as the 3 R’s. A school so open to all in Glenbarr, that even my border collie Glen came to lessons one day after escaping his herding duties.

 One thing I was never taught though was breaking and entering or how to be a spy. I think this is the only way I’d be qualified to break into a school these days. Today’s schools seem to focus less on the 3 R’s and more on H&S and Political Correctness. The rickety wooden fence at Glenbarr is a total contrast to the prison like barriers of today’s schools. And unlike my collie Glen the only dogs in these schools are likely to be growling Dobermans or Rottweiler’s, or maybe that’s just the guarding staff.

 If I did manage to scale the fences there would then be the security systems and intercoms, not to mention the Spanish inquisition from the secretaries. If I survived the interrogation I’d then be unlucky enough to enter a classroom littered with brats. Noisy, disrespectful and well read up on their rights, probably the only thing they’d ever learn in their prison. The Curriculum for Excrement. Not an opportunity for exploring the outdoors. H&S would have a fit. Just a ticky box exercise benefitting the academics and not practical learners like me and Glen.