Letters / He is wrong
I read the Shetland News opinion column about school closures (Beginning to see the light? SN, 10/11/14).
I read Jonathan Wills’ letter (Educational case made in great detail: SN 11/11/14) through and through stating that the writer/editor of the opinion is wrong. However, I believe Jonathan is wrong and that he needs to start thinking about that.
He says it himself in his first paragraph when he says there is an educational case for amalgamating smaller schools into larger ones where it is geographically possible.
I believe I made a case against the amalgamation of North Roe school with Ollaberry school by stating the obvious in my previous letter – Chink of Light (SN; 7/11/14) – namely that little children shouldn’t be expected to travel for 40 minutes on a bus each way to school every day.
This issue is not about reports or financial reasons or other essential services. It is an issue highly personal to families who live in a rural area with the spectre of their school closure, the most important service for their future and for the future continuation and expansion of the area.
Jonathan does not convince me one iota that he cares about education. For one thing, I didn’t see the word children anywhere in his argument. He did convince me, however, that he cares about only being right.
Being right is not the same thing as making a sensible and heartfelt decision.
Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour, and if Jonathan can’t see that, I pity him. I was hoping not to hear from him for a while, but I guess he can’t help himself.
I think if councillors were meeting in secret, it was so that Jonathan wouldn’t hear what they were saying! Good on them if they were. Because if they were, and I don’t know that they were, it was to plot against the heinous plan to persecute Shetland’s most fragile communities.
Elsewhere, the talk has been about looking to the future, and to find ways to generate funding for schools.
Jonathan’s letter is not at all helpful in that regard, in fact he’d have been well advised not to write it, because like Lee Goodlad (Depopulation not an issue; SN 6/11/14) I am shocked at the attitude of some of our councillors.
I look forward to his next letter, explaining exactly how he cares about the children of Shetland and how he will contribute to keeping all our schools open without reducing the staff and money available to each of them.
Dorothy O’Brien
Brae
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