Maybe this Christmas we can try to give some children a brighter future |
So what, exactly, does a specialist education journalist write about in a newsletter that will be sent out on Christmas day, and which also doubles as a newspaper column a few days later?
There are, as I’m sure you can understand, no hugely significant education stories going around right now, but I had a few options.
I thought about pulling together a review of the best, most impactful, and most meaningful education stories published by The Herald this year, but that wasn’t going to work. Usually my editors are very understanding of my contempt for hard word limits, but the systems we use only allow 1000 words for newsletters and are absolutely not willing to negotiate – that being the case, I just don’t think I’d have enough space to look back over the last twelve months and do any of it justice. Realistically, writing about the Mull school saga could easily account for a couple of thousand words alone!
I considered rattling off a column on my favourite Christmas-related books, or my favourite books to give as Christmas gifts, but neither would be of much use to anyone hours after all the presents have been opened, so those ideas were abandoned as well.
But today, driving down the motorway, I had a thought.
I was on the way back to Glasgow after dropping off some presents at my dad’s........