Naughty or nice - which education spokesperson was the best behaved at school?

When it comes to behaviour in the Scottish parliament chamber, Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick sometimes has her work cut out for her. But for those MSPs who talk for the parties on education matters, how well-behaved were they in their formative years? We put this question to them, and asked them what teachers inspired them.

Were you well-behaved at school?

Alison Johnstone, Scottish Greens: Yes! Probably too much so…

Liam McArthur, Liberal Democrats: Despite getting the belt on a few occasions, I don't think I was ever on any blacklist my teachers might have had at the time

Mary Scanlon, Scottish Conservatives: Yes, fairly. I was put forward a class at Auchterhouse Primary School from P2 to P4 and finished 3rd year at 14. I had to stay on another year to leave at 15. I helped with primary pupils and also helped to serve the school dinners as I was the tallest girl at the school. If any girls were being bullied or had any issues, they were told to come to me. Sorting out the bullies, male and female, was perhaps good training for the career I now have. Given my informal roles at school, the Headmaster must have thought I was reasonably well behaved.

Angela Constance, SNP: Not always! In school reports I was described as talkative, a chatterbox and cheeky. I was more focused from S3 onwards when I realised that I needed qualifications to do the things I wanted, a point repeatedly made to me by my teachers!

Iain Gray, Scottish Labour: I confess I was indeed well behaved at school – I saved my bad behaviour for my spare time! I didn’t even indulge my early (and enduring) nicotine addiction in the school smoking area (Boys Toilets), but waited for the journey home…

I saved my bad behaviour for my spare time!

From primary to university, who was your most inspirational teacher/tutor?

Johnstone: Kate Campbell-Johnstone, a PE teacher who gave up many lunch hours and evenings coaching basketball and instilling a life-long love of sport in many of the pupils she worked with.

McArthur: I was fortunate to have a series of excellent teachers through my school and university career, but Vivia Leslie, my English and Drama teacher at Kirkwall Grammar School, did as much as anyone to lift my self-confidence and widen my horizons.

Scanlon: It has to be Edgar McKinnon, English Teacher at Craigo School, near Montrose. I still remember some of his comments and how careful he chose his words to reprimand pupils but never to humiliate them. Another lesson that has stayed with me.

Constance: My fifth year Higher history teacher, Nigel Fletcher, who taught me at Bo’ness Academy. He was fair, firm, and clearly a teacher who enjoyed the company of young people. He taught me a lot of skills that I continue to use, like how to put together an argument, both in writing and verbally. You need that structured approach, not just a blizzard of facts and figures. You have to be able to weave an argument. Not a day goes by that I don’t try and follow what he taught me.

Gray: There were a few, including Eddie Hutcheon my English teacher who turned a love of novels into a love of poetry and plays too. I had a couple of great History teachers as well, including AD Cameron (author of the legendary “History for Young Scots”) who sparked an interest in history which also informed my early interest in politics.  But the ones who inspired me to future study were a series of fabulous Physics teachers, from the wildly eccentric “Madge” to the brilliant Jim Wilson.

More in Monday's Holyrood magazine's look at Education as an election battleground