March 2004 article from the ''The Scotsman' newspaper.
BARBARA DICKSON : MY SCHOOLDAYS
By Leila Farrah
Where did you go to school?
Camdean Primary in Rosyth, then Pitcorthie Primary and Woodmill High School in Dunfermline. There was a choir in the primaries, and lovely art classes, and they taught us to sew. I remember the education being absolutely splendid. I am a very well-educated woman considering no money was spent on my education. (I say this with a little bit of regret: I have two quite bad dyslexics out of my three boys, who are all in private education.)
Did you like it?
They were hugely happy apart from when I failed my 11-plus, which damaged me horribly for many years. I lost a lot of self-confidence because I was always expected to be a foregone conclusion in that respect.
Did you get into trouble?
I did - like every child - but never in serious bother. I was given the strap once for studying a map of Middle East oil on the wall when I was top of the class in geography, instead of listening to the teacher teaching about the Central Lowlands. I was his star pupil, and a lot of what he'd taught me had gone in.
Nowadays, he'd have said: "Pay attention, Barbara". If I got into trouble, my father said, "You must have deserved it", and took the teacher's point of view even it if was unjustified. A little more of that wouldn't go amiss these days with out-of-control, aggressive parents beating up teachers.
What subjects were you good at?
You can guess: music, art, English, history. I was put into a commercial stream, which meant I had to learn typing, shorthand, book-keeping. I learned on an old typewriter and can now type like the wind. In shorthand, all I could ever get was "Dear Sir ... Thank you for Yours faithfully".
I had a theatrical inclination, but didn't act until I was in my 30s. Musically, it was an expression of emotion, and music is a fantastic way of letting off steam. That is the way I used to play the guitar as a teenager at school.
Did you have a favourite teacher?
I had excellent teachers whom I much respected and admired, particularly my music teacher, Sandy Saddler, who, although retired, still has much input in things musical in Dunfermline. He was only in his 20s when he was teaching me, and taught me the rudimentaries of folk music at the time, giving me the first kernel of my love of it.
To this day, I can express myself more finely through folk music than theatre songs, or any of my hits. My heart is rooted in that music; the stories are wonderful, the words are important; the tunes are spine-chilling.
What did you want to do?
I remember being outside the assembly hall on a sunny day, looking into the distance and thinking, "What on earth am I going to do? Should I come back to school for more O-levels, and get myself into the high school for A-levels?"
I did think that I would like to teach. I really did identify with teaching as a profession, but it wasn't a burning ambition. In my water, I always was a very fine musician. They couldn't take that away from me.
College or university?
I worked in the civil service in the Admiralty, then got myself transferred to the Registrar General's Department, in Edinburgh, so that I could sing folk music in the clubs in the evening with my dear friends, drinking gallons of beer. Those were my "student" days.
What do you wish you had learned at school but were not taught?
French. Or German at A-level. Being a Scot, I incline myself towards German, because it's part of what I imagine to be my group of languages. You need a musical ear to be good at languages, and I whizzed along with the small amount of German my brother taught me. I wasn't taught any languages at school because I was in the commercial subjects stream. I wouldn't have done theatre studies or time-wasting stuff like that. History is my favourite subject now, and given the opportunity I would like to study for an honours degree in it.
What is the single most important lesson you have learned outside formal education?
It has to be possible for everybody to make choices about their lives. The boldest choice always will enhance your life. Even if you fall flat on your face, you will have been there, and given it a go.
Singer/actress Barbara Dickson was born in Dunfermline. She has been awarded a Society of West End Theatres Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Mrs Johnson in Blood Brothers, and the Laurence Olivier Award and the Variety Club of Great Britain Showbusiness Award, both for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in Spend Spend Spend. Her new album, Platinum Collection, was released last week
