Reading right
There are many points of view as to which language of the world is the most difficult to learn. I learned Scots by a system that, in my view, is too unrecognised – the "natural" system – by familiarity and daily consequence, rote and repetition.
Alas the formal educational, system-obsessed system denied me free usage of this in the educational context. Nevertheless, I went into teaching when the gospel of concrete learning was in full evangelical swing. Anything too abstract was looked at askance. Most learning is abstract. Few things are more abstract than reading, or language.
IAN JOHNSTONE
Forman Drive
Peterhead, Aberdeenshire