Scottish Education Quotes

“Davie's hostility to sectarianism, and to religious 'fanaticism', was perhaps part of his appeal. He acknowledged the legacy of Calvinism in his interpretation of the Enlightenment and democratic intellectualism, and continued to argue that the distinctive blend of religion, law and education was Scotland's special contribution to civilisation. But by the 1950s and 1960s, the Church of Scotland and its ministers were widely regarded in intellectual circles as a repressive force, morally censorious and culturally philistine. Davie's work, it may be suggested, was attractive to the youthful intelligentsia created by post-war university expansion. Before the war, most Scottish graduates had gone into the professions, the civil service, or school teaching. But now there were new career fields in the media, politics, and college teaching which promoted a less conformist attitude. The Reformation had long been seen as the basis for Scotland's identity and its cultural difference from England, but Davie offered a version of Scottish identity which substituted a secular intellectualism for the well-worn themes of Calvinism and John Knox, and made no appeal, either, to Kailyard sentimentality. Davie became a cult figure for journals like Cencrastus and the New Edinburgh Review, to which he contributed himself.”
― Robert D. Anderson, Writing Scottishness: Literature and the Shaping of Scottish National Identities

“The Church and learning had formed the main channels through which Scotland's links with Europe - in both directions - had run. In 1560 or 1638 as much as in 1450, students went abroad to pursue a second degree: in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, their most usual destinations were the universities of Louvain and Cologne; Paris was the favourite resort of promising Scots scholars for the two generations either side of the Reformation of 1560; by the 1580s the Calvinist University of Heidelberg and the Huguenot academies had taken over from Beza's Geneva; and by 1625 Leiden in the Netherlands had become a Mecca for the two rising professions, the ministry and the law.”
― Michael Lynch, Why Scottish History Matters

“Our call in this pamphlet is for the restoration of genuine educational values traditionally associated with Scotland - intellectualism, generalism and breadth; knowledge, critical and immaginative thought; clear and strong expression; and fairness grounded upon the knowledge that no-one, whether through class, caste, colour or creed is incapable of educational achievement, but equally, that everyone is responsible for achieving it for themseves with the aid of properly resourced institutions.”
― Tony McManus