…that weren’t in the curriculum.
Our teachers at the Royal High knew a thing or two that wasn’t in the Curriculum. Some of this wisdom was passed on to us. For instance Jock “Badger” Dewar (links to a tribute on the Edinburgh FP website) taught Classics but he was also a classical music fan and would draw diagrams of the special electronics required for his Hi Fi amplifier on the blackboard. It would be good to hear if anyone was inspired to a career in electronics or at least to get a decent Stereo.
But Badger was never my teacher, so this is what I learned –
- In Primary School, around 1962, our teacher William Watson who later become Head Teacher, told us we should never volunteer to stand in a police identity parade. He received this advice from a friend of his who was a lawyer who reckoned you could get into all sorts of trouble if you were picked out.
It would be interesting to hear from any of you who are criminal lawyers whether this was true at the time and whether it remains a civic duty still best avoided.
Do any of Mr Watson’s former pupils remember this? - Our Physics Teacher, “Peep” McKay, predicted that Cliff Richard (now Sir Cliff), would still be famous and singing long after his contemporary chart rivals had disappeared. The reason for this is Cliff sang from his diaphragm unlike the other singers of the day. I think we are perhaps talking about 1963-64.
Well Sir Cliff is still going strong, perhaps he has lasted even longer than Mr McKay would have predicted. However others from that time have also continued long after might have been expected at the time. Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney come to mind. - When the Six Day War broke out in 1967, our English teacher, the late Sandy Forsyth, informed us there were parallels between it and the Battle of Armageddon as described in the Book of Revelations. As the war only lasted 6 days that seemed to be a false alarm. However recent events in the Middle East show we are not out of the woods yet.
So whenever you attended the school, did you learn any nuggets you can share?