Page 93 - Herioter 2020

Leaving Early out that schools would be cancelled
from the Wednesday before, we were
left at a loose end.
‘We did it! It’s over!’
The reasons for leaving school at this
‘Aye, thirteen years and we’re now
done.’ point in March were obvious, and
impossible to dispute: we wanted to
The streets of Edinburgh were empty as flatten the curve of infection, saving
we descended upon Arthur’s Seat on the people’s lives through relieving the
evening of March 20, sharing stories, pressure on the heroes who work for
congratulations and condolences. With the NHS, and schools are an enormous
our signed shirts and our hooliganesque vector for viral transmission; many
chanting of The Merry Month of June, students were missing out on school
to any (rare, mask-wearing) onlooker, already due to the virus risk, especially
we would have seemed like any group if they either lived with someone with
of school leavers after their final day of an underlying health condition or had
sixth year.
one themselves; and schools now had
Except it was mid March. enough evidence to support pupils’ important to you, identifying those that
Usually, in a normal year where there is predicted grades. aren’t, and cultivating the ones that
no plague on the rampage through the In many ways, we were lucky to have you want to continue. Come autumn,
United Kingdom, there is a set of events had to lockdown at that point in the when, at university, college, or work,
that schools follow that attempt to year rather than earlier – prelims were school friends meet again, greetings will
ease the pain of leaving. Balls, dinners, done and assignments had been handed be more hesitant, having not seen each
lectures and trips to areas of multiple in (although they were not being other for at least three months.
deprivation in the search for a theme marked by the SQA, much to the dismay However, a lot of good will have come
park all occur in order to provide some of some and the delight of others) – out of lockdown for these displaced
form of closure: you are given the whereas if COVID-19 were to have hit pupils. I know that anecdotal evidence
opportunity to say goodbye to your in, say, November, there would have is circumstantial – however, my biases
teachers, cry a bit, receive awards been more of a challenge. are obvious and my talking point is
for your accumulated academic or School leavers would struggle over the interesting – but every single one of my
extracurricular prowess, and realise that next few months. Not only because school friends, when asked what they
while leaving school may be sad, the while younger students had schoolwork will be doing during quarantine, have
60-plus years of life you have left will to do, with next year’s National 5s, responded along the lines of learning a
more than make up for it.
Highers and Advanced Highers to language, an instrument, or reading the
Removing these traditions does not look forward to, but also because a entire works of Shakespeare (after all,
allow pupils to develop a sense of large part of leaving school behind is King Lear was allegedly written during a
closure, and, seeing as we only found identifying the friendships that are Plague epidemic).
These three months might create a
year’s worth of wonderful, switched
on, multilingual individuals who are
extremely well read, which, of course,
does not ease the pain of the extreme
human tragedy occurring around us, but
does mean that, when this is over – and
it will, eventually, be over – the world
will benefit from these young people
who failed to complete their education.
Ubiquitously, teenagers have the ability
to both celebrate and mourn in the same
sentence: while it was too soon, it was
the perfect time for us to leave. The
world is safer because we did. And, after
all of this, it might even be a little bit
better off.
Malachy Harris (S6)

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