Ok, about the sectarian stuff

Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but here's the info on this week's marches.

https://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/17881134.council-allow-two-irish-republican-parade-govan-riot/

Is it even possible to overlook the sectarianism when living in Glasgow? It's such a backward mentality but it runs deep in the culture.
Always wondered what it would be like to introduce non-religious American kids to it. Especially in public schools, which are apparently still divided by Catholics and Protestants. (Why is that?)
It's hard to imagine explaining to American kids after moving to Glasgow why they can't go to the same school as Protestant kids or vice versa. How do you answer that  without reinforcing that Catholics and Protestants are different? And have to be kept separate? That just seems like it would be such a foreign and frankly unnecessary concept to introduce to them. Surely they eventually also learn slurs about the "other" at school too to reinforce this.
I'm genuinely curious how Americans who bring their kids to Glasgow deal with this, short of sending their kids to private school.

If the Daughter was of school age again, I'd have her in a private school anyway. Better control - if mom and dad are paying for it, the kids are more likely to be "motivated" to keep up, whereas when you just have to go to the corner school because the law says you do, and you're in there with kids who don't give a damn, the level of the class will be lower.

The Oranges torched the Mercedes of the head of one of the local Greens, over in the East End, on Monday night.
https://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/17882962.car-belonging-irish-republican-group-leader-torched-glasgows-east-end/

The Daughter has an offer of a job interview in Edinburgh next week. I've told her I think she should pursue it.

I think that's wise Nan, and Edinburgh is a lovely city! Good luck to her.

I fear with the instability down here, it will only get worse elsewhere.

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Fingers are crossed. It's with a good organization, but only for a year. Still, it could open doors! The commute on the bus will be a killer, though.

Fingers are crossed. It's with a good organization, but only for a year. Still, it could open doors! The commute on the bus will be a killer, though.

With a job could she afford the train?

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Yeah, still a massive pain. Local bus to the train station (probably Central, a real barn), train to the work city, local bus to the job, bus from the job to Waverly station, train to home city, bus home from the station....  Actually, time-wise, taking the megabus/CityLink is about the same. It's a lot cheaper, and it doesn't suffer all the faults and cancelled services that the trains have. It's never overcrowded or full of football rowdies, either.  It's just going to make for a long day - back to like in Calif, when we had to commute a few hours each way before and after a 9 hour day. On the good side, she wouldn't have to be driving it. Just sitting there and looking out the window. She can always knit on the bus. 

The pay isn't great - she was making more as a secretarial temp 10 years ago with an associate's degree, but it's a job and it'd be an "in" with the organization. Worst case, she could use it as previous experience in the field when applying for federal jobs back in the States.

(probably Central, a real barn)

Never heard of beautiful, Victorian, Central Station with all it's conveniences, described in quite such a way.... 
But if she's going to Edinburgh, she will use Queen Street, more likely.

Oh, I love Central. It's beautiful. But it's a huge, huge train barn. A very large covered, loud place. With lots of people. And gets hotter than hades in the summer when there is sun out!

Queen Street would be more convenient - the local bus drops off just outside it.  But again, the trains are not as reliable as the coaches, and tend to be overcrowded. We've taken several and also several coaches, and the time difference is about 10 to 15 minutes longer on the coach.

She has to get the job first, then sort all that out. I would assume it's a longshot, so I'm not going to concern myself with checking out the logistics or anything at this point.

If the Daughter was of school age again, I'd have her in a private school anyway. Better control - if mom and dad are paying for it, the kids are more likely to be "motivated" to keep up, whereas when you just have to go to the corner school because the law says you do, and you're in there with kids who don't give a damn, the level of the class will be lower.

It's that bad, huh 
I think I know what you mean about control. I've heard your kid will be assigned a school anywhere in the area if there isn't room in the nearest school, is that right? So even if you live in a somewhat nicer neighborhood your kid might not necessarily go there for school.
Sorry to "derail" the topic. I know we're talking about trains now.

It's that bad, huh 
I think I know what you mean about control. I've heard your kid will be assigned a school anywhere in the area if there isn't room in the nearest school, is that right? So even if you live in a somewhat nicer neighborhood your kid might not necessarily go there for school.
Sorry to "derail" the topic. I know we're talking about trains now.

Its not that bad!!! I went to local school here in Scotland as did mu children, both in the city and in a small town and I would never say that we got a bad education just because we did not have to pay for it.. I also know children who have gone to private school and have not done very well with the education that they received.. As for sectarianism there are people who still hold bigoted views about religion but in general it is only a small number and no not every school in Glasgow or any other area in Scotland has segregated students.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that all the schools here were bad!

I went to public (state) schools in the States and also to a private school for several years. The difference in the quality of education between the two spheres was dramatic. I do believe that is primarily because the state school had to accept all comers, while a selective private school would be, well... more selective. In the private school I attended you kept up, or you were given extra help to keep up. If you did not apply yourself or you were disruptive, you were asked to leave.  The discipline was incredibly strict. (Which I hated at the time.) When I finally did leave that private school, I found that I was a good three years ahead of my peers, academically.

I did then go to a very good public (state) school system, but again it was not nearly as rigorous as the private school had been, and the extra support students might need if they were struggling was not necessarily available, due to the lack of extra state funding.  From what I see and have heard of the schools here, the same type of scenario applies.

That does not imply that students in state schools here necessarily get a "bad" education, at all. But I think that if they are enrolled in a selective private school they probably would get a better one than if they were in one of the really large state-funded ones found in the bigger cities.

Then again, if you have a child who is self-motivated and has access to (and uses) a good library, as long as there's not open carrying of knives at the school, they'll do well no matter where there desk sits all day. 

It's that bad, huh 
I think I know what you mean about control. I've heard your kid will be assigned a school anywhere in the area if there isn't room in the nearest school, is that right? So even if you live in a somewhat nicer neighborhood your kid might not necessarily go there for school.
Sorry to "derail" the topic. I know we're talking about trains now.

Having been a student teacher in the public schools in the USA, I used to run into the problem of parents either not caring at all what their darlings did while in school (or if they did anything at all) or parents who would get so up in your face about how their special snowflake needed special treatment (and the other 29 kids were supposed to wait while you managed that?).  So between the static from parents and the kids who were just dumped into the classroom and promoted every year regardless of how well they did or didn't do, and having to buy pencils and supplies for them because the state didn't fund us well enough....  I'm left a bit jaded.    (The burnout rate of new teachers in the States was 50% in the first three years, back then. I think it's worse now.)

And yes, I believe you are correct. You can live down the street from a given state school, but if it's full, your kiddo goes elsewhere.

I think I would always prefer that my child be in a school that I selected for them, based on their interests and personality. If I had all the money in the world, and the Daughter was very young again, I'd have her in a Montessori or maybe a Waldorf school for her early years, then in one of those private schools that allow the students to progress at their own rate (to some extent) and choose from a wide variety of non-core courses in addition to the basics of  reading, writing, and arithmatic - but who would be monitored so that she did not fall below a given standard of achievement over time. And where she would learn at least two other foreign languages. The added advantage of being able to pay to have close supervision (aka small class sizes) is that the only other kids in those schools are there for pretty much the same reasons.  [Aside from the people who put their kids in posh schools just because they are upholding their social status, that is.] So, she'd be socializing with other children whose families put a similar emphasis on education that I would do.

Technically I could home school her - I have the degree in education, plus a few others. But I think that a good part of a child's education is learning how to get along with others their age and to navigate socially.  That is kind of limited in a home-schooling situation, unless you get lucky and have a support network of other home-schooled kids around.

Anyway, my two cents worth, for what that is really worth....

Mainly for Jimbo, who had never heard about the whole Old Firm thing, but also for anyone curious about the whole shameful mess...

You'll need 25 minutes of time and inclination...