(Continued from Part Two)
My Favourite teacher was Mr D….. He was very arty and would do huge drawings in chalk on the blackboard which captivated me. He also had a reward system called “credit marks” which he made up from brightly coloured gummed paper – a different design for each activity – which he awarded for all sorts of achievements. Am I imagining that these were given out for all sorts of things, not just academic prowess? So quite forward looking for the time. I remember he had a penchant for having pupils stand next to him at his desk whilst marking their jotters and quietly stroking the backs of their legs. Considered eccentric at the time, but not sinister and I can recall no particular protest. Times have changed.
Other things that spring to mind. No playground games particularly, no football although we had generous playing fields for such a meagre school. Inter-scholastic sports meant that I could run quite fast but without distinction. I liked cricket by the time I was ten or eleven (although it was a very minority sport in Scotland then) and recall organising a boycott of school sports until the cricket equipment (which was there, but unavailable to pupils for no apparent reason) was released.(Continued in Part Four)