I read today that lots of parents have been finding it difficult to home-school their children during the current pandemic, which reminded me of the one and only time my Irish mother attempted to home-school me. It was in the 1950’s. I was the wee smout in the photo attending the RC Primary School in Winchburgh. Although my mother hadn’t received much of an education in the clergy-ridden rural Ireland of the 1930’s, she could read and write (but not spell) and she could do sums. For some reason, she took it upon herself one evening to teach me sums. She wrote down a number of simple sums on a piece of paper and invited me to fill in the answers. But there was one sum that bothered me. It contained the figure 5, except the hat on the 5 wasn’t attached to the rest of the figure. Sitting out there on the left of the sum, for all the world that hat looked like a minus sign. I protested: “But Mum, we’re no’ daein’ take away sums yet!” At which she gave me a slap across the face. She wasn’t a very patient home-schooler. And there ended the lesson.
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