And so, dear listener, ‘picture it if you’se will.’* Me as an eighteen year old student – a very long time ago. And don’t worry; there is a point to this memory and I realise that I should have offered this insight to the Scottish Government a week or so ago and we might be in a better position that we are just now.
It was in the early seventies and I had come down from the fishing town of Peterhead to the fleshpots of Glasgow – or Queen Margaret Halls of Residence, Bellshaugh Road, just along from the Kirklee Bridge at the Botanic Gardens where my ashes will be scattered. 😀 😀 😀
(Good friend e and I have already had a dummy run. It’ll be like Poo Sticks. You scatter the ashes on one side of the wooden bridge and then run to the other side. I told Son Brian who, technically, would be in charge and he went, ‘Fine. Whatever.’)
Initially, I was 18 and didn’t know anyone. There were 350 students in the halls; 175 boys and 175 girls. You had your own room and the cost was covered by your student grant. You got breakfast and an evening meal and lunch on a Saturday and Sunday. And getting to know people was not a problem. 🙂
Yes. There were wardens on each floor but these tended to be single (as in marital status) lecturers who were new to Glasgow and doing their own exploring.
We had no-one to tell us what to do and what not to do. There was no going out drinking with your pals and worrying about what your parents would say to you when you got home. ‘It’s okay mum and dad. I’ve had a good night but I’m tired and I’m just going to bed.’ 😉
The style of student residence has changed but students haven’t. There are still student residences where QM halls once were and there’s a student village in Murano Street near Firhill (when will I see its like again?) and we’ve been telling young people that it’s old people who are most at risk so when they meet other freshers for the first time, of course they’re going to spend time with them – unmasked – cos how do you know what they look like? So, yes, they have gone out to enjoy themselves in a range of ways and they have come into contact with the virus without realising they were putting themselves at risk. 😦
And I’ll give you another example of the naivety of young people away from home for the first time, if I may.
When Son Brian was a lot younger, he and I went to an Open Day at Maryhill Fire Station. The fireman in charge asked us where we thought most of their calls came from…..and then without waiting, he told us.
‘The Murano Street student village.’, cos no-one had shown their youngsters how to wash a grill pan. So nobody knew how to. And every so often, they went on fire. What do students know anyway?
Maybe all the current Scottish Government (with degrees) travelled to uny every day and went home at night. They should have asked me.
*Andy McChuckemup as played by Bill Paterson when he was still an actor with the 7:84 Theatre Company in the Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil.
Here’s a wee bit of the flavour of the Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil. This is John Bett and the man who went on to be Taggart.
And so dear listener, I wrote that on Thursday morning; spent some time in my alternative office of the Botanic Gardens in the afternoon; and got home at night to some studently news that completely changed my view of things.
@JasonLeitch had been telling students that if they weren’t self-isolating and showing no symptoms then it wasn’t illegal for them to go home for the holidays; but then, a few hours later, he was telling them that eh, no, they couldn’t go home cos that would mean they were meeting indoors with another household.
Nobody had explained that leaving mum and dad to go to a student residence meant they had transferred to another household and their original household (or mum and dad as they knew it) was no longer applicable.
And did no-one tell the Scottish Government about the size of some these households in uny residences? I saw one piece of footage on mainstream TV filmed by a student on a phone saying that three of them had tested positive but the rest of them (nine!!!!!!) were self-isolating in the lounge (FFS!!!!!!)
And then they were told that they couldn’t go to pubs, restaurants or cafes this weekend (‘but hopefully just for this weekend’ said the FM) but as I write this I have seen no guidance for those students who work in pubs, restaurants and cafes – or stay at home with their parents. Or stay in rented flats. Or, for the four social work students that e and I did some work for earlier this year who work part-time in social care. The Scottish Government was happy to let them do that then, but now?
I am a wee bit angry and maybe there’s a degree of self-interest in what I have to say but I also know that many students were already disappointed at the notion that, for many of them, the great university adventure was now going to be just watching a pre-recorded lecturer zooming in on their computer screen.
They are used to being told what to do by teachers and parents and they didn’t even get ‘normal’ contact with their their teachers last term or were impacted by the exam crisis. I feel they’ve been let down when much of this could have been avoided. It all seems a bit brutal to me and may well have an effect on their wellbeing and mental health.
I then finished writing this late on Thursday night, hit the Publish button and have not looked at it since.
So, I was going to keep you posted on my kitchen but no room. It’s going well. Here, with absolutely no connection with how my new work in progress kitchen currently looks, is God’s Country by Blake Shelton.