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Archiver > ABERDEEN > 2002-06 > 1024826708


From: Gavin Bell <>
Subject: Re:[ABERDEEN]Teacher Training
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2002 11:05:46 +0100


Deb wrote:

> Many thanks to Gavin for his continued sharing of his knowledge.

Who thanks you for your support, but fears that this time, you may have
caught him out!

> One of my relatives, Alexander GRASSICK, husband of Margaret DONALD, and
> son of James GRASSICK and Penelope ALLANACH, was Elementary School
> Teacher at Coull on the 1881 census, and at Leochel-Cushnie on the 1891
> and 1901 enumerations; and also Registrar of Leochel-Cushnie where he
> signed his father's death certificate as informant and registrar in 1906.

In the 1893(? it isn't dated) edition of the Ordnance Gazetteer
Leochel-Cushnie has:

" ... four public schools - Cairncoullie, Corse, Craigievar and Cushnie,
- witn respective accommodation for 60, 96, 140 and 106 children, and
grants of £57-7s, £80, £72-13-6 and £64-13-6."

> Without the MA after his name on any of these census records, it is
> doubtful he completed university to attain an MA ...

I wouldn't necessarily assume that - I don't believe the Census did, as
a matter of course, record degrees and qualifications (although some
respondents may well have wished to include this).

> ... but at this later date what level of education might he have
> received ...

This is where you catch me out. From 1872, education was
state-sponsored, rather that in the control of the Kirk Sessions, but I
do not know what formal qualifications were demanded, and from what
date. I blush to confess that, although trained as a teacher myself, I
do not know the foundation dates of any of the Scottish Colleges of
Education. However, if your ancestor was already a teacher by 1881,
there is a chance he may have qualified before any of them came into
being.

> ... what might his salary have been and what would his economic
> status be like?

According to T C Smout "A Century of the Scottish People 1830-1950":

"Tha average salaries of male teachers, 1872-1900, varied between £121
and £143 per year, but those of female teachers only between £62 and £72
- half the cost". This was not great wealth - in 1893, the Minister at
Leochel-Cushnie had £245 - but would have been comfortably above
what most of his pupils' families earned.


Gavin Bell

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