[Margaret Pilkington]

I had some fantastic teachers.
Mrs Armitage...gave me the reading bug(I couldn't read until I was seven).....made me nosey(although I prefer inquiring).
Miss Atherton inspired my love of artistic things.
Miss Smart......taught us cookery.......and allowed us to eat what we had made.

Yes there were teachers who scared me, but surely that was down to me, not to them.

I really do wish I had made more of the opporunities that were there for me at school.
The problem with being a child is.....you really do not know what you will need to know when you are grown up.

Children are required by law to go to school...when frequently they would much prefer to be doing something else. Teachers have a tough job.....what inspires one child may leave another cold. We are all individuals and this means that 'one size fit all' in anything does not serve all children.

Discipline has to be upheld.....otherwise no-one learns anything...and frequently any kind of discipline in the home life of many children is lacking...so discipline in school is an uphill job.

We were punished in school for trangressions...we wrote lines.....were made to stand on the 'line' in the hall....we were kept in at break time.
I did not consider these punishments to be abuse...or for that matter unjust. It taught us that our actions had consequences....something that children do not seem to grasp today.