A. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
SCHOOLS
MUSIC IN RURAL SCHOOLS
IN SCOTLAND
bY
A. MCSHIELDS, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Schools for ScotlandA very large number of schools in Scotland are small country schools,
many of them remotely situated. With a staff of four, three, two teachers
or only one, responsible for the instruction of pupils of all ages up to
12 years or so, these schools present difficult problems of organization
and method. The pupils have different backgrounds, environments
and interests although the educational aim is essentially the same as
that of urban schools. The main problems arise from the unavoidable
grouping of children of various ages or stages under one teacher.
Others are due to the migrating habits of many farmworkers ; others,
again, to the fact that the home speech in some districts is Gaelic, not
English. Although the country child is, on the average, no less well
endowed mentally than the city child, he has fewer contacts with people
and is therefore more shy and usually less articulate.
The responsibility for the teaching of music lies with the class teacher
but, where the teacher is inexpert, diffident or inexperienced, much
valuable help might be given by the occasional visit of a specialist
supervisor of music. These visits should in no way relieve the teacher
of the responsibility for teaching the subject. Not all primary school-
teachers have skill in music, but the training colleges are doing their
utmost to give all students some instruction and practice in coping
with simple rural training, sight-reading and the teaching of songs. As