Sunday, September 25, 2022
The view was written by Ellen Scott, Midlothian Southern Councilor and Minister for Education, Children and Youth.
Nelson Mandela famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”
At Midlothian, we are a generation away from our mining heritage and only 160 years away from the passage of a law ending women and children under the age of 10 working underground in British mines.
The mining community knew the importance of a good education. They introduced reading rooms into the community and saw night school as a passport to the future. No miner I ever knew wanted their kids to go to the mines. “Go to school” was the mantra you heard every day. Why is education and “settlement” so important?
poverty. Civilization’s devastation is the answer. The miners knew that only education could free them from Black’s diamond handcuffs that had locked them in. Only an education can allow us to take a breather in the lush countryside we all love, earn enough money to dress and feed our family, and a little extra money for our vacations. Raising your hand lifted you out of poverty, and education was the velvet glove that pulled you out.
In Gorebridge, when our high school closed, more than one school closed. Closed the community. No more kids walk or bike to school and make lifelong friendships. No more youth training workshops. I can’t swim anymore. No more community education or night school. There are no more youth clubs or summer clubs. With the closure of the pit, it was the death knell for our community.
The education we want is here and we want it now in our community [is that another song!]We should be allowed to savor all the same facilities that other Midlothian communities take for granted.
Perhaps my passion for the new Spanking School comes from my schoolless childhood. spent the day We were given her 5 minutes up and down on each side of the period. I don’t remember the teacher saying that the weather was bad and we couldn’t go up and down. Drookit and skeletonpit caught the wind and you sat in class until it was time to go home. I was at a new high school in Abbey Road and she only got one semester, but I didn’t have time for a long absence from Hutt. I was lucky enough to get into another Nissan Hut, also known as Esk Valley College in Goakshill. [now the recycling centre]employers lined up for very well-trained students.
The yearning for a nice new dedicated school may be embedded in my DNA! But that educational foundation helped. At 40, a magical new world opened up when I knocked on the door of the University of Edinburgh. Old buildings are still there, but only luxury ones. Thank you to the dedicated teachers who taught history, English and all the other subjects that gave me an inquisitive mind and a love of learning. Here I am in the third age of my life and still learning.
School gives children an identity. It fosters their community spirit and pride. they belong somewhere It’s their place in the world and the children of the Midlothian South and Gorebridge should have it. Some of our communities live within her 20% of Scotland’s poorest communities and we know that has to change. Education is the golden path to achieving it. It might take a little more work on how to get kids interested in the virtual lasso, but give it a try.
I am passionate about new schools for communities. Because it is more than a school, it is my wish for all the young people who live here. It is part of my dream that all Midlothian children go out into the world at their best with a thirst for knowledge and the ability to think for themselves that never leaves. Let’s put the Dickens children in the history books they deserve.
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