I have a dream ...

Earlier this week I chose to talk about dreams to our new S5 at assembly. I spoke about what lies in store for them in the next year and how it is going to be a challenging year. S5 is the year when pupils take their Highers; widely regarded as the 'Jewel in the Crown' of Scottish education. Highers are the main qualifications asked for by Universities recruiting onto their undergraduate programmes from Scottish schools. Highers are difficult and S5 is a particularly challenging year for pupils. I suggested to all that they needed to aim high and to dream of what they might achieve if they worked hard and focused their efforts.  There is disappointment when one falls short but there is no shame. The shame would be in not trying.

I then went on to refer to Dr Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech of 28 August 1963 and how impossible what he dreamt of may have seemed at the time. However, we now have a black president in the White House and equal rights for all is a cornerstone of American society.

I have a dream

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. 

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. 

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. 

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. 

I have a dream today! 

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. 

I have a dream today!