We can’t let ignorant racist fools tell Scotland's schools what to do

As you may know, we’re heading towards Christmas, which is a funny time in schools, particularly primary schools. Just when teachers are fixated on concepts like bingeing on Netflix, lying in, and gin, ooh gin, they have to fix their smiles, put on their elf costumes and do Christmas (the casting of the Virgin Mary; discovering that vegetarians can’t eat mincemeat; losing the back half of the donkey; all that wrapped-up soap and everything else).

Christmas is hard for teachers, but there is also that precious moment, when, blinded by the spotlight, wee Jamie, a Wise Man, stares into the audience and shouts “Granny! Granny!” and well, Granny, she knows she’ll never forget that. This is a thing that teachers achieve, and we should all be thankful for it.

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English lessons for parents

So two recent stories made me well up with sadness while simultaneously, more or less literally, spitting teeth in fury. The first was the protests outside Dalmarnock Primary School in Glasgow, where a crowd of people gathered to ‘protest’ (a better word would be ‘moan’) about the fact that some people who can’t speak English – mums and dads of children at the school – were getting English lessons in a self-contained building on the school premises.

How is it possible for anyone to think that there’s anything wrong with that? Apparently, the concern was that these people hadn’t been police checked, but, my dears, had any of the protesters, who were spending their (mainly retired) free time hanging around at school gates?

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Given that one of the central ‘auld fella’ moans about immigrants is that they don’t speak good English, what lunacy is it to stop them from learning? My old Auntie Lizzie (and I think this is a general Scots usage) used to use the word ‘ignorant’ to describe ill-educated, uncouth people, the kind of people who, say, spat in public or swore.

This protest is simple ignorance. Lizzie, a school cleaner by trade, would have welcomed these parents into her home for a cup of tea. Instead, some oldies in Dalmarnock think they might be paedophiles. Inside the school, preparations will be underway for the Christmas concert. ‘Child in the Manger!’ Now which country was he from?

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‘Racist and abusive’

Then there is Cauldeen Primary in Inverness – and maybe, really, this is even worse. At that school, the Christmas show has been cancelled after the school was sent “racist and abusive messages” because the show – written a decade ago – included a scene about Syrian refugees.

Now you don’t have to be a genius to work out how a scene like that might figure in a Christmas show being done by good Highland kids. Simple, clear themes: not all children have a great time at Christmas; we need to think about children worldwide and oh, remember that Mary and Joseph were refugees, trying to save their unborn child.

The children at Cauldeen had been practising for a while, singing their wee songs and acting out their parts, getting ready to warm the hearts of their anxious parents and harried teachers. A spokesperson for Highland Council said that the school had “made the wellbeing of staff and pupils its main priority”.

The implications of that are horrifying – a primary school in Inverness has its choice of Christmas show dictated by some nutters obsessed with immigrants; they believe there might be a danger to their community if they go ahead.

Tainted by something rather nasty

According to Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence, we want these children to learn to be “confident individuals”, “effective contributors” and “responsible citizens”. Instead their understanding of the world is mangled through the lens of social media and (no doubt anonymous) emails.

These two stories – what are we to make of them? There’s nothing remarkable about either of these phenomena – an English as a second language class or a wee innocent primary school musical. They seem to me to be rather pure things, an act of educational charity and a traditional, nostalgic expression of Christmas with a bit of an up-to-date twist.

But all of this has been tainted by something toxic and rather nasty. It’s not as if these things are new or controversial – the wee Christmas play was written years ago and has no doubt been previously performed: it has a directly religious theme.

Now we all know that Christmas can be a fraught time anyway, both financially and in terms of human relationships (“your Uncle George has been sick on the dog”), and we cannot let the darker side of the political spectrum, regardless of whether it’s of the ‘right’ or the ‘left’ begin interfering with matters well within the jurisdiction of teacher, school and local authority.

The road to hell

I’m delighted to hear that the English classes are continuing; I don’t imagine these old souls outside Dalmarnock Primary School will persevere into the really frosty weather.

And I hope the police will be vigilant in hunting down the malevolent spirits who think kindness towards Syrian children is no message for our Highland youngsters. I think of these kids, their event cancelled and the message that cancellation teaches them.

My teeth are clenched again. We need to resist these incursions into the innocent lives of our schools. If not, we really are heading to hell in a handbasket, here in the bleak midwinter. I hope every teacher reading this has a great holiday. And gin.

Cameron Wyllie is a former head teacher. He writes a blog called A House in Joppa and is the author of a book called Is There A Pigeon in the Room? My Life in Schools