SCOTS Project - www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk

Document : 962
Title    : Burns in School
Author(s): Mr Jim Alison

Copyright holder(s): Mr Jim Alison

Text

The third cam up, hap-step-an’-loup 
As licht as onie lambie 
An’ wi a curchie low did stoop, 
As soon as e’er she saw me, 
Fu kind that day 
————————————— 
My name is Fun — your cronie dear, 
The nearest friend ye hae ...

These words, the arrival of Fun at the beginning of “The Holy Fair”,
are my text for today; their application should emerge later. 

1. WHY SHOULD WE BOTHER WITH BURNS IN SCHOOLS? 

In the context of educational development in Scotland over the last 15
years ... Standard Grade, SCOTVEC Communication, revision of Higher, the
5-14 programme, Higher Still ... nothing in the curriculum can safely be
taken for granted. For every component a case needs to be made. And that
applies not just to Burns but, as we have been seeing recently, to the
teaching of literature in general, and within that to the place of Scottish
literature. 

Briefly then before we come to Burns, I shall touch on two prior questions:


i. why bother with literature? 
ii. why bother with Scottish literature?

Literature 
The Scottish educational system at both primary and secondary levels has
viewed literature and language as intimately reinforcing each other within
the subject English. Most of us would, I think justify the study of
literature on grounds such as these: 

• it demonstrates the fullest, most precise use of language, 
• it gives young people access to vicarious experiences and promotes
their imaginative, aesthetic and moral growth, 
• it gives students knowledge of their cultural milieu and heritage, 
• it yields reflective enjoyment — and so on.

These claims can seem high flown and they are horribly vulnerable to
classroom realities, but they remain articles of faith to which most
teachers of English will subscribe. They are being severely tested at the
moment in the Higher Still debate. 

Scottish Literature 
So also are the claims of Scottish literature, which has recently been
gaining more official recognition within the curriculum. I believe that
Scottish texts, generously defined, have important advantages which should
recommend them for classroom use at all stages. They can give our students
imaginative insights into episodes and experiences which are part of our
country’s distinctive past, and may influence our present and future. 

They help us all to understand what living hereabouts has meant to the folk
who have gone before us; they give shape to ideas, casts of mind and ways
of saying which have haunted Scots over the centuries and which are often
with us still. 

In practical terms some are likely to tap into the domestic and
non-standard language that young children bring to school. Many will also
draw upon shared experiences of teachers, students and their families or
illuminate local events and places. Fascinatingly they link with our music
and art, our political, social and economic history. Overall they can help
us to gain a sense of our cultural identity in relation to our neighbours
and other nations. 

But only if we know about them. 

Burns 
Assuming then that we have made positive answers to these two general
questions, we turn to Burns. Why bother? Among all the competing claims
what has Burns to offer schools today? 

In what follows I shall be speaking mainly about Burns in the context of
English/English language courses in school. It’s important, however, to
urge that there ought to be a coherent pattern of Scottish contributions to
other areas of the curriculum such as Environmental Studies and Expressive
Arts in the primary school, and that within these the work and life of
Burns has contributions to make at all stages — particularly in music and
history but also in art and drama and possibly R.E. 

National Poet 
What does he have to offer to the study of literature and language? Well we
are still, on his bi-centenary, being told on all sides that he is our
NATIONAL POET. Ian McIntyre, for example, starts the most recent major
biography: ‘Scotland’s national poet was born in the same year as
William Pitt, Schiller and Mary Wollstonecraft’. Virtually every
reputable contemporary work of reference also offers that thought: ‘The
national poet of Scotland’. But what does the phrase mean? ...
Scotland’s greatest poet? its most popular? the only poet most people
have heard of?, the only one who can stand international comparison. You
will remember the surrealist musings of Iain Crichton Smith’s Murdo upon
the Muse and the mouse, with that embarrassing echo of the English teacher
in it somewhere: ` 

Murdo: 
‘What does the mouse do when he sees this ploughshare approaching? Well
he did what was natural for a mouse in such circumstances. He ran away. Not
only that, but he ran away with bickering brattle. A fine phrase in itself.
Here is the mouse in the corn, as we might say, helpless and here is the
great poet who has by this time written many great poems. It is not a minor
poet that we have here but a major poet at the height of his powers, or
“pooers” as I might say. What did this great poet, author of such
famous poems as “Death and Doctor Hornbook” do? He addressed the mouse.
Most great poets would not see in this tiny animal matter for speculation.
But Rabbie Burns did. That is why he is our national poet. At this moment
he would teach us a lesson.’

I am not sure where that definition or that lesson gets us — other than
offering a terrible warning to teachers who pontificate on Burns! 

Burns is obviously not our ‘national poet’ in the sense of writing the
epic dealing with the national myth or story, like Vergil or Camoens. In
that sense ‘the matter of Scotland’ had been treated by Barbour and
Harry, as Burns acknowledged, and perhaps even by Ossian Macpherson. But he
did see himself as speaking for Scotland and as being charged with a
responsibility to do something for Scotia, ‘or sing a sang at least’;
and many people in his own time accorded him that role, ‘Caledonia’s
bard, brother Burns’. 

We note also his disinterested commitment to collecting and editing ‘the
poetry and music of Old Caledonia’ for Johnson and Thomson. He has a
patriotic interest in Scottish history, ‘the patriot and the patriot
bard’; and he sees himself in a long line of Scottish poets which include
his immediate predecessors Ramsay and Fergusson. 

Pivot 
Any point in history can of course be portrayed as a time of transition,
but Burns writes at a pivotal time for Scotland when, as Tom Devine has
already demonstrated during this conference, society was feeling the social
pressures of really traumatic agricultural, industrial and cultural change.
Remember Auld Glen, James Tennant of Glenconner, neighbouring farmer and
close friend of the Burns family whose son ‘Wabster Charlie’ founded
the great St Rollox chemical complex! Burns illustrates remarkably widely
these forces in poems such as “The Twa Dogs”; the diptych of “Love
and Liberty and The Cotter’s Saturday Night”: “The Author’s Earnest
Cry and Prayer”, “Address of Beelzebub”, “The Gallant Weaver”,
“Why shouldna Poor Folk Mowe?” and many more. His work embodies matters
of history, politics, commerce, religion, sexual mores, the social classes,
festivals, music, language, agriculture, the landscape, travel and other
aspects of Scotland in what Smout called ‘the crucial decades of the
1780s and 1790s’. He is in fact the first of our poets to be sensitive to
a reasonably broad sweep of contemporary Scottish culture and to bring to
bear on it some kind of historical perspective. 

Quality 
On the grounds then of his aspirations, and the scope and diversity of his
materials and styles, we are justified in seeing him as a national poet,
but it is the quality of work that entitles him to the rank of the national
poet, and a consequent international status. Assessments of his quality and
his position in the canon have swung between 19th century bardolatry and
the fierce critique launched by MacDiarmid in the second ‘Burns Cult’
essay for the EIS in 1926; then partly back via the judicious, but warm
reappraisals of Daiches, Crawford, McGuirk and others, many of whom,
happily, are taking part in this conference. My own belief is that the
present proceedings, though stopping this side of idolatry, will confirm
once and for all the use of the definite article .... the national poet. If
we believe, as I have urged, that the schools have a duty to vivify and
transmit our national literary heritage, then we must in a systematic way
introduce students to Burns as the one writer at the very heart of our nat
ional culture. The rest of our literature can be shown to fall into place
around him. But it should also be part of a significant body of Scottish
Studies within the primary and secondary curriculum. 

Qualities as a Writer 
Among the qualities of Burns’s writing which justify our attention are: 

• his humour: from high-spirited fun to fierce satire, 
• range of feelings: compassion, patriotism, indignation, melancholy,
sexual excitement, 
• lyric power: sentiment to sexual (humorous and serious) 
• dramatic presentation of character, 
• narrative skills, 
• technical agility with words, ryhythm and poetic forms, 
• control of Scots/English language resources, 
• sensitivity to literary traditions, 
• folk song qualities, matching words and melody, 
• letter writing skills and personae.

Belatedly we need to do justice to the extraordinary diversity of his
riches ... in the letters and songs as well as the poems; and to take
account of the great range of his appeal at different ages and stages of
students. What other poet in the canon of English Literature can appeal
from early primary to sixth year secondary? Chaucer? Donne? Pope? Keats?
Browning? Tennyson? Yeats? ..... even Shakespeare? 

I shall return in a moment to the important question of his use with
younger children. 

2. RECORD OF THE SCHOOLS 

How have Scottish schools been treating Burns in the past? Drawing on my
own experience of over 50 years as pupil, teacher, teacher trainer and HMI,
I have to conclude that the pattern has remained remarkably constant across
the years and across the country. In primary and secondary school alike
Burns has seldom if ever been grossly neglected: in certain ways he keeps
popping up, but on the other hand he has seldom figured in any planned
fashion. A typical situation is revealed away back in 1912 in Glasgow where
the Albany Burns Club minutes its thanks to the headteacher and staff of
Provanside Higher Grade school: 

‘For the great trouble and time they devote from the ordinary curriculum
in working up children for the competition.’

In other words Burns has tended to be an extra, sometimes admittedly a
treat, but never fully part of the curriculum. 

Within my own experiences the usual manifestations have been: 

In primary school: 
• telling the folk hero tale of the lad born in Kyle, learning, singing
one or two songs e.g. “Duncan Gray”, perhaps a visit to the cottage
(and new “Tam o’ Shanter” experience). 
• Some elements of Burns Supper ... Haggis, etc., might involve singing,
reciting, dramatizing ... 
• working for Burns Federation award certificate.

Additionally in secondary school: 

S1-S3: some further poems, usually around January ... “Tam o’
Shanter”, (tho also in primary) plus perhaps “To a Mouse”, “To a
Louse”, “Scots wha hae”, etc. Also possibly the Burns Federation
competitions. 
S4-S6 some study of more demanding poems for exam purposes, such as “The
Twa Dogs” and “Holy Willie’s Prayer”, and more recently pieces in
the SEB designated lists for Higher or CSYS. Perhaps Burns Supper, School
Burns Club, Writers’ Club etc.

The Scottish Examination Board 
It is worth registering by the way that SEB and its predecessors have
always made it reasonably rewarding in examination terms to spend some time
on Burns. Before the 1960s, when specific authors and texts were mentioned
in examination papers, Burns turned up in some form or other as regularly
as Shakespeare. The Leaving Certificate of 1930 for example asked for a
comparison of the poetry of Burns and Pope, and that of 1931 asks ‘In
what kinds of poetry do you think Burns is most successful? Illustrate your
answers by quotations’. Hardly stimulating tasks, but typical of the time
and no worse than any of the other questions in the papers. 

The crucial new step in 1994 was the specification of 13 poems to be
studied by anyone who chose the Burns option for the Higher Grade
examination. I do not know how popular with students this option has been,
but I believe that for the first time it encourages teachers to undertake a
substantial study of Burns at Higher level. I realise that the specified
text question has been unacceptable to some teachers but at least it has
had the advantage of making it worth while to study some key Scottish poets
at length ie. so far, MacCaig, Crichton Smith and Burns. One can only hope
that whatever form of assessment replaces it in Higher Still is as
beneficial in this respect. Personally I doubt it. 

Variations 
The effectiveness with which Burns is presented across the school stages
has always of course depended on the commitment of individual teachers. In
the west there have been in the past some marvellously enthusiastic
Burnsian primary headteachers who have made a rich and happy experience of
their Burns topics; in other instances in some secondary departments it has
meant little more than an annual dusting down of George Ogilvie’s
Selected Poems or one of the Burns Federation Readers or the selection in
John Blackburn’s “Gallery”. When studying Burns’s poems closely at
the senior stages, teachers have of course used a variety of teaching
techniques, from class exposition to open-ended group discussion. On the
whole they have handled them much as they would the work of any
non-Scottish poet, the main difference being the attention given where
needed to Scots language forms. 

What I have just described is the kind of mix I recall as a pupil; got
involved in as a teacher in Glasgow and Aberdeen; and could still be pretty
sure of encountering as I inspected primary and secondary school until two
years ago. It is true of course that after the professional disputes of the
mid ‘80s additional voluntary activities such as Burns Suppers and Burns
Federation award preparations diminished markedly, and sometimes have not
recovered. Additionally when teachers are under the administrative
pressures of new syllabuses and assessment arrangements they can be excused
for feeling that apparent add-on luxuries such as Burns activities may be
jettisoned. 

Evaluation 
On balance one could argue, and I think I would, that this admittedly
patchy experience of the work of Burns over the primary and secondary
stages was a more rewarding treatment than many other authors have received
in Scottish schools. There has been, after all, some emphasis on enjoyment,
and some chance that pupils would sing or perform and join in a group
activity of some kind..... even if it was only making neeps and tatties in
P5 or saying “The Selkirk Grace”. But it is worth stressing in this
bi-centennial year that our school system can and should do better by the
national poet. 

3. THE BURNS FEDERATION 

One cannot comment fairly on the way that Burns has been taught in Scottish
schools without taking into account the promotional work of the Burns
Federation over many years. I make no apology for giving due credit to it
in this talk but, in preface, I should plead that I have never been a
member of a Burns Club and am not engaged in a PR exercise for that
excellent international organisation, the Federation. My observations are
those of an outsider not privy to the inner councils. Tomorrow morning Mr.
Murdo Morrison its president will have his say. 

It has been common in the past for critics under the influence of
MacDiarmid to denigrate the activities of the Federation, and of course it
is an old Scots custom to be snide about enthusiasts. No doubt some of us
also have unhappy memories of being dragooned into reciting by heart ‘To
A Mountain Daisy’. Nonetheless I consider that its contribution to
keeping Burns alive in our schools has been quite remarkable, if
inadequately recognised. 

Beginnings 
It is true that when founded in 1885 as a means of bringing together Burns
associations of various kinds, it did not see itself as having any
educational brief. Its first aim was social, to ‘consolidate the bond of
friendship among members’. A reading of the early issues of its journal,
the annual Chronicle (First published 1892), shows no articles on the
potential of Burns in schools. Its contributors were mainly concerned with
the biography of the poet and his family, the preservation of manuscripts
and memorabilia, and the erection of monuments. An important purpose was to
report the activities of the ever growing number of active clubs. It was
only in 1911 that its formal objects were revised to include the aim: 

‘To encourage and arrange school competitions in order to stimulate the
teaching of Scottish history and literature.’ (Vol XXI, 1912)

This change in the constitution merely acknowledged however a movement to
stimulate school competitions which was already well under way. The first
formal reference to a school competition had come in the 1902 report of the
Bridgeton Club, but the practice had started in 1878, originally only for
the children of members and pupils of three east end schools, Hozier
Street, Parkhead, and Martyr public schools. There is even evidence of the
Greenock Club, arguably the oldest in the world, organising some kind of
children’s prize as early as 1806. 

In 1912 the Annual meeting of the Federation (in Carlisle!) heard a first
report on the subject: 

‘Mr. John Neilson, Thornliebank, submitted a report on the educational
work conducted by Burns Clubs among school children. Ten years ago in the
West of Scotland six clubs promoted competitions on the songs and poems of
Burns: now no fewer than 42 clubs were engaged in this work, which had
proved educationally and socially a great success. He advocated
competitions being held every second year, and advised that the help of
teachers should be requested in the work. Mr. Neilson promised to give
preliminary hints to any clubs beginning School Competitions. In seconding
the report, Mr. John Wilson, Glasgow, thought that the competitions should
not be restricted to the songs and poems of Burns, but should embrace
Scottish song and poetry generally. On behalf of the Scottish Song Society
he offered to give hints to popularise the songs of Scotland.’

Some of the ingredients of these early competitions remain of great
interest to us today, in particular their repeated emphasis on three key
components: 

• music and song 
• recitation and performance 
• community involvement

The competitions usually resulted in a prize-giving linked to an annual
children’s concert which was often a sell-out in the district. Such
activities can at their best bring out the elements of celebration and
carnival which are at the heart of Burns’s work. 

Development 
Unfortunately the varied club events lost some of their individuality
between the wars, when with the best of intentions the Federation took them
over centrally in cooperation with the Education Authorities and, with
greatly increased numbers, added something like a national examination
syllabus in Scottish Literature, with texts prescribed for the session and
written papers at different levels. These were taken each January, with
certificates awarded to the best pupils in each class. Alas, for some older
Scots today the only memory of Burns at school is a test plucked out of the
air at short notice for no strong reason and thereafter quickly forgotten.


But these were the occasions when things went wrong! Overall the Federation
has done its best to keep abreast of educational developments. It
introduced personal projects and an Art award, encouraging the setting up
of school Burns Clubs, and with the sponsorship of an oil company
introduced a very popular one-day national festival for young competitors.
I understand that some 140.000 young Scots from nearly 700 schools (mainly
primary) are still entering for its competition annually. Happily this is
not an assessment system which I was ever called upon to inspect, but I
bumped into it periodically by accident and was impressed sometimes by the
enthusiasm it could generate. 

Larger Issues 
To its credit the Federation has often supported the larger educational
cause of Scottish literature as a means of improving the expertise of
teachers. From the first it insisted that Burns had to be seen in a wider
context of Scottish studies. It had a large hand in creating the chair of
Scottish History and Literature at Glasgow University. Its early Vernacular
Circles, notably the London circle so much derided by MacDiarmid, did a
great deal to raise consciousness of Scots language issues, and the
Federation was a strong early backer of the Scottish National Dictionary. 

Resources 
More closely relevant to schools, it has sponsored over the years a series
of very useful anthologies in which Burns is imbedded in a range of other
Scots poetry, prose and drama. In 1937 the first of these collections, I am
proud to say, was edited by a former Senior Chief Inspector of Schools,
J.C.Smith, and a former secretary of the EIS, Thomas Henderson. A more
recent version, “A Scots Kist”, had the backing of Douglas Gifford.
Among other materials produced by enthusiasts associated with the
Federation have been the delightful bairnsangs of the three Ayrshire men
who disguised themselves as Sandy Thomas Ross; the folk tale and nursery
rhymes collected by Norah and William Montgomerie (he died a year ago but
should not be forgotten on an occasion such as this.); the simple 24 page
account of Burns’s life by James Veitch, a “Burns Federation Song
Book” edited by John McVie and the anthology for younger children, “A
Scots Handsel”, edited by J.K.Annand. I shall say something more about a
current collection Burns for Bairns in a moment. 

It is fair to say also that the Federation has acted as a catalyst for the
introduction of a group of Burns poems into the present Higher Grade course
(which I Persist in thinking is a GOOD THING). 

Value of these Efforts 
I suggest then that we should be profoundly grateful for the Federations
dogged efforts since the 1890s. It may have made mistakes in stressing the
competitive motive so heavily and encouraging an elocution approach to the
performance of party pieces, but we have to recognize that these features
have been very popular with parents and children, and may account in part
for the phenomenal survival of interest over the generations. In the face
often of official indifference, the Federation has tried to understand and
work with the school system. At its best it has maintained a generous
vision of Burns as a great writer within a wider Scottish culture. It has
seen the importance of the language issue. It has produced valuable
materials for use in schools, and it has never forgotten what William
Soutar affirmed..... that if Scottish literature and language was to come
back alive ‘It would come first on a cock horse.’ This is not
surprising since many of its most committed members have been Scottish
teachers.....  whom Christopher North, speaking of Burns’s many dominie
cronies, characterised as that ‘meritorious and ill-rewarded class of
men’. 

4. BURNS FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN 

I want to say something about Burns in our primary schools ... on the
assumption that our other contributors today will be dealing mainly with
the secondary sector. What I take from the Federation’s best efforts over
the years are, as I have mentioned earlier, the value of celebration and
festival and simple fun in the education of young people. Burns’s poetry
calls out today, particularly in the earlier stages, for music, song and
dance; for performance, dramatisation and group involvement. 

Burns, as far as I know never wrote consciously for young children, though
he occasionally addresses them in his poems. Some of his songs and his
smaller pieces, as well as extracts from the major poems, have however the
genuine whigmaleerie touch..... the humour, rhythm and linguistic
playfulness with an occasional disturbing frisson that children love,
particularly if there is also opportunity for music. 

Burns himself said of one of them: 

‘“Duncan Gray” is that kind of light-horse gallop of an air, which
precludes sentiment. — The ludicrous is its ruling feature.’

This is what Edwin Morgan has called the ‘madcap, inventive,
quicksilver’ side of Burns. It is the manic dimension of his work; we
have also to recognize that there is a powerful depressive side as well,
and that the one is the obverse of the other. For the purposes of primary
education however, we should make the most of this greatly underestimated
resource of sheer fun in Burns. 

Likely Items 
If we are setting out to choose Burns material for primary purposes, likely
items include: 

“Up in the Morning Early”, “Wee Willie Gray”, “Hey ca thro”,
“We’re a Noddin”, “O Whistle and I’ll Come to ye my Lad”,
“Duncan Gray”, “To A Haggis”, “To a Louse”, “Address to the
Toothache”, “O Willie Brew’d a Peck o’ Maut”, “The Deil’s Awa
wi the Exciseman”, “On Tam the Chapman”, “Killiecrankie”, “What
will I do gin my Hoggie Die?”, “Poor Mailie’s Elegy”, “The Auld
Man’s Mare’s Dead”, “On a Schoolmaster in Cleish Parish”, “The
Kirkudbright Grace”.

Nor should we forget the wonderfully lively Scots prose tale of “The
Marriage of Robin Redbreast and the Wren” which according to Burns’s
sister Isabella he made for the amusement of the younger members of the
family. As a narrative of a desperate journey it’s an early preparation
for Tam! 

Materials 
How at the moment does a primary teacher get a convenient selection of
Burns materials? Even in the bicentenary year the answer is, ‘not
easily’. The Federation’s earlier publications, notably the excellent
Scots Kist and Scots Handsel, are mostly out of print. It recently revised
an anthology Burns for Bairns mainly for the purpose of its recitation
competitions. This is quite a comprehensive selection, and crucially does
not hesitate to make extracts from longer or more adult pieces. 

Extracts 
I mention extracts for primary use because, as you are well aware, in Burns
what starts as fun ‘may end in Houghmagandie’ (that is after all the
plot line of “The Holy Fair”)! I first met ‘There was a lad....’
when I was twelve, and for years I did not realise it had a final verse
about ‘the bonny lassies lying aspar.’ The school edition had simply
dropped it off the end. I am not advocating bowdlerising Burns, simply
saying that there are some poems that are eminently accessible in parts to
younger pupils, and these opportunities should not be neglected. We should
not through any fear of destroying the integrity of works of art hesitate
to cull what we want for our pupils. 

Burns for Bairns 
Unfortunately, as the title of the recent publication, “Burns for
Bairns”, might suggest, its touch is uncertain: it contains feeble stuff
such as “The Banks of Nith” and “The Banks of Devon”, and its
advice on elocution and delivery is singularly unhelpful (eg. it says of
“The Gallant Weaver”, ‘Treat this poem with a pleasant tone and tune,
giving a good final cadence to the last line’). It is a pity that an
opportunity has been lost here, particularly since the project was
generously sponsored by one Burns Club with the intention of putting copies
into all primary schools. There is still therefore place for a well packed
primary kit (or Kist!) of Burns materials including selections of prose,
background historical resources, tapes of music, a topographical video etc,
in other words, a specialised version of SCC’s forthcoming 5-14 Kist. It
may be that something of this kind has already been produced in Ayr
division. If not, it is worth doing...perhaps by the new unitary authority
or the Federation or the AS LS or the Saltire Society or SCCC. If we are in
future to give Burns his key place at the centre of our teaching of
literature and language from primary upwards, a well produced resource of
this type is essential. 

5. TEACHING METHODS 

The teaching methods suited to presenting Burns in the 5-14 stages are in
the main no different from those for any other imaginative writer: it
should be possible to accommodate him within the programme for listening,
talking, reading and writing, and find also room within Expressive Arts and
Environmental Studies. One or two points, however, in no particular order:


i. Fun with Words 
It is worth exploiting every chance for language fun in Burns, particularly
the crossing over between Scots and English forms. I remember, many years
ago, two 12 year olds who had been learning and singing “Duncan Gray”
coming to me with a painting they had done of the poem. This showed some
kind of quadruped offering a bunch of flowers to what looked anatomically
vaguely like a woman: 


Me: explain please. 
Them: it’s a goat. 
Me: why the flowers? 
Them: it’s in love. 
Me: What’s the point? 
Them: it’s a wooing goat. Ha, ha, the wooing goat.

ii. Gender 
Even with primary children it is worth confronting the issue of Burns’s
attitude to women. The song “Sic a Wife as Willie” had is a typical
blend of linguistic nimbleness and grotesquerie. In a sense it is great
fun, but is it right to laugh at a deformed woman? What do you think of the
girl’s attitude in “Whistle and I’ll Come to you my Lad”? Write the
dialogue between Kate and Tam on his homecoming. There are many
opportunities for lively work in topics such as these. 

iii. Winter 
In many Primary schools the curriculum rightly retains a quite primitive
seasonal cycle. Summer excursions and holidays, autumn, harvest, Halloween,
Christmas, Spring and Easter are all worked in somehow to class activities.
We should not then devalue the annual January recourse to Burns. There is
some fitness in his being established as the poet of the Scottish winter
festival. Winter was his favourite season after all, and there are many
vivid pictures of it in his poetry that can be extracted and enjoyed, and
even sung. For example: 

The wintry west extends his blast 
And hail and rain does blaw 
Or the stormy north sends driving forth 
The blinding sleet and snaw. 
Wild-tumbling brown the burn comes down 
And roars frae brae to brae, 
and bird and beast in covert rest 
and pass the heartless day.

This is the first verse of the unpromisingly titled song “Winter: a
Dirge”. It’s good strong visual stuff which intriguingly anticipates
Hopkins’s “Inversnaid”. I suppose it should have been called
“Winter: a Rant” since it goes very well to Burns’s intended tune,
“MacPherson’s Rant”. It can stand on its own, and does not need for
our purpose its two following verses of Augustan Deism. Or take the
extraordinary first five stanzas of “A Winter’s Night” describing the
snow storm and the animals sheltering. Even the murderous fox wins the
farmer’s pity. This latter piece has the added fascination of Scots and
English rhymes. Which pronunciation to choose? A vote on it? 

iv. Drama, Music and Dance 
There are also in Burns many chances for drama, music and dance, however
modest your confidence and skills may be. Pieces such as “The Deil’s
Awa’” and “Willie Brewed a Peck o Maut’” cry out for mime and
movement. The Burns Federation, has a useful popular songbook with words
and music and also a glossary by David Murison. Some schools now benefit
from visiting tutors in traditional music, and children who can play fiddle
or chanter. Happily moreover for schools that are not so endowed, there is
now a lot of good Burns folk music on tape. I understand for example that
Linn Records are releasing this week the first of a series which will cover
the whole corpus of Burns’ songs. I had a chance to hear from it an
irresistibly rhythmic version of “Wee Willie Gray” by Rod Paterson and
Tony Cuffe. Some though certainly not all of the items in this first CD are
likely to be very suitable for primary use. The revival of enthusiasm for
country dancing among young folk is also worth exploiting, for Burns
himself loved the dance. (‘The plooman laddie dancin’), though it was a
cause of contention with his father. 

Remember Fun in “The Holy Fair”: 

The third cam up, hap-step-an’-loup 
as licht as onie lambie 
An wi a curchie low did stoup 
As soon as e’er she saw me.

His poems are full of such references and opportunities for ‘mirth and
dancing’, and his songs make use of the old dance tunes. I should add
that my own first war-time experiences of country dancing in primary school
were a total, embarrassing disaster. I still blush to think of them. 

v. Audio-visual Media 
There has always been a temptation to present Burns visually. When I
started teaching I had one 35mm film strip of “Tam o Shanter” and one
of Chaucer’s Pilgrims; neither was strikingly successful as a visual aid.
However having recently fought my way through all the fudge, perfumes, tea
trays and engraved crystal, I think I would recommend for any primary
teacher a class visit to Alloway. “The Tam o Shanter Experience”,
three-screen presentation in purpose-built auditorium, introduces a very
convincing Meg and a less than diabolic Old Nick. Nanny is decent, just:
not too abandoned. Her reverend grannie would not have been too shocked!
This little show has a nice touch of comic, slightly homely terror which I
believe Burns might have appreciated. I don’t think it diminishes the
poem at all. In terms of the ‘horrible and aweful’ it is certainly no
match for contemporary horror videos, but I am told that many of the
primary classes who have already visited it have enjoyed it thoroughly. The
recently refurbished Biggin is, for adults at least, a chilling, disturbing
place, effectively and simply presented, but eerily empty. In the adjacent
museum the new wall displays about Burns’s story and Ayrshire life are of
very good quality. All in all, I think this is, with the adjacent brig and
kirk, a worthwhile additional resource for primary classes provided they
prepare for their visit in advance. 

6. CONCLUSION 

In this talk I have stated a case for Scottish literature in our schools. I
have argued that the time is ripe to place Burns’s work right at the
centre of our teaching of literature and language, and within a framework
of Scottish studies planned across Primary and Secondary. I have described
what I think are the strengths as well as the weaknesses of our traditional
handling of Burns in the schools. In so doing I have acknowledged the
valuable contribution of the Burns Federation over almost a century.
Finally I have offered some thoughts on approaches to Burns at the primary
stages. Throughout I have dwelled on the potential for high spirits and
simple ‘fun’ in Burns’s work... ‘the nearest friend ye hae’.


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Informed lay people: Audience size: 21-100

Text details
Method of composition: Wordprocessed
Year of composition: 1996
Word count: 5919
General description: Transcript of a talk given at a conference

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Periodical/journal: Other: Originally a talk at Burns Bicentenary Conference, University of Strathclyde, 11-13 January 1996

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Published: Publisher: ASLS
Publication year: 1997
Place of publication: Glasgow
ISBN/ISSN: 13583972
Edition: 1st
Part of larger text: Contained in: Laverock 3
Editor: ASLS
Page numbers: 35-40

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Author id: 252
Title: Mr
Forenames: Jim
Surname: Alison
Gender: Male
Decade of birth: 1930
Educational attainment: University
Age left school: 17
Upbringing/religious beliefs: Non-religious
Occupation: HM Inspector of Schools (retired)
Place of birth: Paisley
Region of birth: Renfrew
Birthplace CSD dialect area: Renfr
Country of birth: Scotland
Place of residence: Bridge of Weir
Region of residence: Renfrew
Residence CSD dialect area: Renfr
Country of residence: Scotland
Father's occupation: Electrician
Father's place of birth: Paisley
Father's region of birth: Renfrew
Father's birthplace CSD dialect area: Renfr
Father's country of birth: Scotland
Mother's occupation: Textile worker
Mother's place of birth: Paisley
Mother's region of birth: Renfrew
Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area: Renfr
Mother's country of birth: Scotland

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