Sch.16 Summary of two interviews with a married couple regarding the ecucation of their children at a fee-paying local authority school, female interviewer, 5 May 1962

INTVEEs have recently moved to the Midlothian County Council area, they would have liked a corporation house, which they thought were superior to Edinburgh corporation housing, but male INTVEE’s employer refused to sign the form saying it was necessary for him to live near his place of work as he owned a car and because they had to keep council houses to entice employees from further afield. Prior to moving their children had gone to Wardie School. They have no time for "fee-paying nonsense" but felt it would be penalising the children to send them to Granton when the neighbouring children went to Wardie. Male INTVEE went to Granton School and then David Kilpatricks, leaving at 14 and serving an apprentice as a mill wright with Bruce Peebles. He is now employed by Ferrantis. He says the factory at Crewe Toll is organised into “firms”, each with a general manager and four or five managers. INTVER asks about the old boy network and he comments that in some firms there is a prevalance of Edinburgh Academy boys, Daniel Stewart boys or Catholics. Female INTVEE went to school in Barrhead, she regrets not going to university – she entered the civil service instead. They think Wardie provided a good education but no more so than a non fee-paying school could have done. They spoke with enthusiasm of the cuisinaire system of arithmetic teaching. Male INTVEE is keen for one of his sons to go into nuclear physics as he thinks there is much expansion in this area. Female INTVEE thinks it is a pity that there is a divide between the arts and science and this seems to be widening. Male INTVEE talks of the eccentrics employed at Ferrantis - mathematicians being the most eccentric, one of them goes about the factory in a black cloak and monocle. He is quoted as saying, "you might say it’s comparable to art, anybody with a creative gift in science is given the maximum encouragement. A firm like Ferrantis will put up with almost anything if somebody comes away with something really new, if he really has a creative spark, they'll leave them loose in the lab". He thinks a degree could facilitate people getting in to Ferrantis, but not necessarily getting on. INTVER notes that she is beginning to question the idea that there was a great drive in Scotland for education before the war as she has heard many stories about interviewees or their parents being offered bursaries to higher education but having to decline because families would not let them take them up. Male INTVEE says, while he wants his children to do well, he is focussed on his own job and prospects, he doesn't believe any sacrifice is worthwhile and is quoted as saying, "I might have been able to get my children into one of the Merchant Company Schools, but quite honestly I wouldn't be prepared to pay those high fees". He wants his children to have interesting careers and is quoted as saying, "I want my children to enjoy their work and be interested in it". His wife, however, is more concerned with level and is quoted as saying, "I don't mind what they do as long as it’s something of a certain level".