all pupils were making satisfactory progress ... encouragement [was] given

to pupils to think things out for themselves’. ‘Pupils’, they observed, ‘con-

versed freely and confidently with one another and with adults and had no

difficulty in explaining what they were doing’. Regarding the curriculum,

the inspectors noted that the basic subjects taught by the two regular teachers

were supplemented by visiting teachers in Art, Craft, Music and Physical

Education and that the children used the swimming pool at Madras in St.

Andrews.

Minor criticisms made by the inspectors were that some of the pupils could

be helped to become more self-critical, and there was drawn to the school’s

attention, as also to that of other schools, a recent circular based on the

Education Authority’s guidelines on religious education.

Finally, the inspectors praised both teachers who, they said, ‘showed a

strong commitment to the particular needs and features of the small rural

school’.

An aspect of education in Strathkinness which has not yet been considered

is the opportunities available in the past for Strathkinness children to receive

the kind of education which might enable them to improve their prospects.

The traditional Scottish respect for learning was less evident in Strathkinness

than it was in some other places. Until this century it seemed to be a poorer

community than many others in the neighbourhood and for many people there

was no time, or desire, for much more than work. The poverty prevalent in

Strathkinness is indicated by an entry in the St. Andrews Kirk Session minutes

of 1843 which recorded extra help ‘to the poor in Strathkinness of which the

list is very numerous in proportion to the population’. And later, when the

church in Strathkinness had been set up after separation from St. Andrews,

the minister, the Rev. David Stewart, begged the St. Andrews Kirk Session

to continue to provide help for the Strathkinness poor, as the new Parish of

Strathkinness was unable alone to provide for them.

Most of the pople in the village were employed in farm work, quarries,

and in weaving. According to the school log books many of them did not

see any advantage to their children having more than a minimal education.

Of the others who would have liked more education for their children, many

could not afford to give them the opportunity. For each one of those who

was able to take advantage of an opportunity for further education there would

have been others who could not.

There are a few cases of children from Strathkinness being sponsored by

either the minister or the schoolteacher, and there may be others not recorded.

The list of ‘gratis tickets’ for the admission to Madras ‘of children being the

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