Teachers help keep immortal memory alive

Published on Tuesday 27 January 2009 19:04

FEW Scots need to be told what a "wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie" is, and even fewer would wonder what edible treat is being eulogised in the poem that begins "fair fa' your honest, sonsie face".

On Sunday, up and down the country, hosts and guests alike prepared an "immortal memory", a speech about Burns; a toast to the lassies, traditionally thanking women folk for their haggis preparation; and a feisty retort from the female perspective, as part of the traditional Burns supper.

The reason these dinners, and all their attendant ceremonies, take place all over Scotland, with such careful observance to tradition, lays at the feet of primary school teachers north of the Border. Marking the birthday of Robert Burns is almost universally treated as a major event in primary schools in Scotland.

Pupils everywhere memorise poems for public recitals, learn about Burns' life and times, and many enjoy suppers of haggis, neeps and tatties in school canteens.

Judith Gillespie, policy development officer with the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, says the anniversary is a major date in school calendars.

"Burns celebrations are one of the points of the school year," she says.

She explains that there is a huge variety of curricular aspects, ranging from history to literature, on which a project about Burns could be based. "It might even cover finance, given that he became an exciseman."

Gordon Smith, the headteacher of Jordanhill Primary in Glasgow, and past president of the Association of Heads and Deputes in Scotland, has overseen Burns activities at the school since he arrived 20 years ago. It holds two Burns suppers; one for younger children and one organised for P6 with invited guests later in the evening.

"While the poems provide a more pictorial learning experience for younger children, older children can look at Burns' life, work and the times in which he lived," Mr Smith explains.

On the universal appeal of the poet to teachers, he cites good access to resources and educational materials as well as the ability to adapt learning for any age.

"He's relatively easy to access at various levels," Mr Smith says. "To a Mouse can be accessed on the level of a farmer seeing a mouse in a field, to the end of the poem where he uses the mouse as a metaphor for older children."

But, according to Mr Smith, Burns also offers a shining example to children of a self-educated Scot whose reputation has become global.

"Here is a man living at the end of the 18th century having quite a typical existence," he says. "Here is somebody who is world famous, showing there is a role in life for everyone, regardless of your start in life.

"Part of the Burns' charm and appeal to all ages is that he wasn't perfect. Maybe he went to the pub, maybe he had a number of girlfriends and was a bit of rogue, but he's just so accessible and always has been."

Another key to the man's life and work is his use of the Scots language.

"If it wasn't for Robert Burns, a large part of Lowlands Scots would have been lost," Mr Smith says.

Academics say the Scots language and literary works by those who used it should be included within the school curriculum.

Dr Derrick McClure, a senior English lecturer at Aberdeen University and chairman of the Scottish Language Forum, says students were very enthusiastic about Burns but were often puzzled by the Scots language.

"Without a shadow of a doubt, they should learn more about both Scots, and what it is, its forms such as Doric and various dialects," he says. "There should be much more attention paid to the language Scots actually speak and to the literary Scots language and the history of the Scots.

According to Mr McClure, Scotland offers the perfect situation to teach Scots because several different dialects are still widely spoken and because of the language's long literary history up to the present day. He argues that Scottish children should learn more about their great literary heritage.

"It's amazing that they don't," he says. "But I would lay a bet that no school in Scotland ignores Burns, especially at this time of year and especially with this year being the 250th anniversary. Lots of schools have Burns competitions, where the children learn his poems and recite them, but once a year, one poet out of the entire wealth of Scottish literature is not nearly enough."

Mr McClure describes the amount of teaching about Scots literature as minimal.

"There should be far more, not only Burns, but Burns in the context of more teaching about poetry and literature and Scots language," he says, explaining that the enthusiasm for Burns had certainly helped to keep an understanding of Scots alive. But he adds that it is "to our shame" that our children, and even adults, don't know more.

"Ask any young person coming through school or university if they can say who Allan Ramsay or Robert Ferguson were. They probably wouldn't know and yet, without them, Burns would not have been the poet we know. I'm not a school teacher, but I would see no harm in there being set texts, and they should include Burns and more Scottish texts."

Currently, there are no set texts for the teaching of literature in Scottish school exams and no recommended reading list for poetry.

Dr Fred Freeman, a Burns expert at Edinburgh University, is the producer of the only complete songs of Robert Burns to have been recorded. He regularly visits both primary and secondary schools to run workshops on the Ayrshire poet's work.

"Some lip service is paid to him, but in the main, children don't really know that much," Dr Freeman says.

"It depends on the regions, but very little is known about the Scots language as well, and children are very interested in the songs once they hear them."

He agrees there should be more focus in schools. "I've been arguing this for years – there is so little Scottish literature or history or music on the curriculum," he says.

Last year, the Scottish Government agreed there should be a greater focus on Scottish history on the incoming new school curriculum, the Curriculum for Excellence. The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) then made a Scottish element compulsory on the Higher history paper.

The Scottish Poetry Library agrees it is important for children to be aware of the work of Burns all year round and so will not do any work directly with schools for his birthday.

At the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August, however, an anthology of his poetry will be launched and distributed free to all secondary schools, in conjunction with Learning and Teaching Scotland and the SQA. Robyn Marsack, director of the Scottish Poetry Library, says: "It's going to have 12 poems by Burns with 12 responses from contemporary poets on the same theme, and a little bit on from them on why they did it.

"We didn't think everything should cluster around the birthday."