Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Searching for Success
I have just come back from south west Jamaica where I was trying to further the research into a book I am writing about the Scots who founded the colony of Caledonia in Darien (Panama) in 1698. When things got rough down there many of the Scots fled to Jamaica, where there had already been a sizeable English colony for nearly fifty years and where, optimistically, they hoped they would get help. They didn’t and so most sailed on and tried to get back to Scotland, whilst a few remained. During my travels I was surprised to see so much reference to the Scots in southern Jamaica; Culloden, Auchindown, Invercauld, Kilmannoch rang out the, admittedly, limited road signs.
The young Scots had made their mark and some, like Captain John Campbell, went on to become wealthy and powerful men. He was the local bigwig for the wealthy little town of Black River, serving as its custos. I tracked down the beach where Campbell had constructed an old wharf to send logwood back to Britain, and tried to find his nearby grave. But after an afternoon of searching for his nearby grave in murky mangroves proved fruitless I gave up and returned to the pretty beach where he shipped off his logwood and dived, with more success, for conch shells.
Campbell was a young Scot who fared well despite his circumstances in Jamaica. His travails brought out the best in the eager Scotsman. These days success is harder and harder come by without a good education. When I last visited Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the North Highland College, the Environmental Research Institute, Dornoch College and the Community Learning Centre at Brora. It is hard to for me to be in any way critical of these innovative centres of learning, each of which appeared to produce a distinctive brand, aimed at a different area of the education market. They were clearly places for people who had achieved.
What, though, of some of the other educational facilities throughout the constituency? Sadly, not all of them can be a complete success. I would like to hear your complaints and grumbles. What works and what doesn’t work? What is really lacking in the constituency, especially in relation to further and higher education?
Are a broad enough range of modern languages offered?
What is the balance like between vocational and non-vocational courses?
Is there a sufficiently broad range of non-vocational subject at the level of higher education?
Do people have to travel too far to receive what they need and want?
Is their adequate nursery education?
I ask all this, as I am a believer in education providing the route whereby every young person can obtain the skills they need to draw out their talents in order for them to achieve what they wish in their life. A society in which merit and skill determine children’s futures is one, we in the Labour party, wish to see strengthened. The only way we can do that is with better feedback and help as to how we can help in each local school, in each small town.
Fortunately we no longer have to be starved out of Panama and forced to flee to Jamaica to find within ourselves our true skills in order to succeed, but equally, the path to success is not always necessarily an obvious one for every child or young person.
As always, I look forward to hearing your view.
The young Scots had made their mark and some, like Captain John Campbell, went on to become wealthy and powerful men. He was the local bigwig for the wealthy little town of Black River, serving as its custos. I tracked down the beach where Campbell had constructed an old wharf to send logwood back to Britain, and tried to find his nearby grave. But after an afternoon of searching for his nearby grave in murky mangroves proved fruitless I gave up and returned to the pretty beach where he shipped off his logwood and dived, with more success, for conch shells.
Campbell was a young Scot who fared well despite his circumstances in Jamaica. His travails brought out the best in the eager Scotsman. These days success is harder and harder come by without a good education. When I last visited Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the North Highland College, the Environmental Research Institute, Dornoch College and the Community Learning Centre at Brora. It is hard to for me to be in any way critical of these innovative centres of learning, each of which appeared to produce a distinctive brand, aimed at a different area of the education market. They were clearly places for people who had achieved.
What, though, of some of the other educational facilities throughout the constituency? Sadly, not all of them can be a complete success. I would like to hear your complaints and grumbles. What works and what doesn’t work? What is really lacking in the constituency, especially in relation to further and higher education?
Are a broad enough range of modern languages offered?
What is the balance like between vocational and non-vocational courses?
Is there a sufficiently broad range of non-vocational subject at the level of higher education?
Do people have to travel too far to receive what they need and want?
Is their adequate nursery education?
I ask all this, as I am a believer in education providing the route whereby every young person can obtain the skills they need to draw out their talents in order for them to achieve what they wish in their life. A society in which merit and skill determine children’s futures is one, we in the Labour party, wish to see strengthened. The only way we can do that is with better feedback and help as to how we can help in each local school, in each small town.
Fortunately we no longer have to be starved out of Panama and forced to flee to Jamaica to find within ourselves our true skills in order to succeed, but equally, the path to success is not always necessarily an obvious one for every child or young person.
As always, I look forward to hearing your view.
# posted by John McKendrick @ 1:15 PM 
