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DJMA Newsletter #7
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| DJMA Newsletter #8 |
 DJMA Newsletter #9 |
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Dunbar's John Muir Association reaches its third anniversary on 27th July 1997. Much work has been undertaken by members of the Association since the inaugural meeting in 1994 and DJMA Convener, Winifred Sillitto, looks back over the last three years at the end of her convenorship. DJMA owes an immeasurable debt to Mrs Sillitto for her unstinting efforts on behalf of us all. Our very best wishes and thanks go with her on the occasion of her 'retirement'
As ever, I am indebted to the many contributors to this edition of the Newletter. It is another bumper issue and so there is no need for me to 'pad out' this column. So, without further ado here is the DJMA 'news'.
Ed.
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As DJMA's third AGM approaches, and with it the end of my convenership, it seems appropriate to reflect on some of the issues that have concerned your Council over these past three eventful years.
Our major concern, of course, has been the drive for a John Muir Centre in Dunbar. The early dream was of a spacious building, a striking example of best practice in 'sustainable' construction and servicing. Here a dozen or so staff and as many visiting specialists would be at the cutting edge of research evolving ways of interpreting to ordinary people (including politicians!) the unpolished parts of the natural world, of biodiversity and the need to sustain resources. Dramatised episodes in the life of John Muir would be used as a hook for exploration of current environ-mental issues. Advanced technology would be exploited to provide for schoolchildren and tourists the sensations of a visit to the wildest places on earth. At all times of the year people would be busy in the Centre, acquiring information from around the world and making it readily and widely accessible, planning and producing Summer 1997 exhibits and events, organising expeditions to distant wild places or informed debates with world-wide video linkage. Other like- minded organisations would rent some exhibition space for a month at a time. Always, there would be someone with time to talk -- and listen -- to whoever dropped in. Eco-tourists from far and wide travelling north by the A1 would come here to find out what to visit in Scotland, while those travelling in the other direction would learn of northern England. Dunbar would become for nature conservation what St Andrews is for golf.
All things to all people? Maybe. Anyway, it was made very clear to the Association that the project would have to be self-financing, paying its way year after year, after year. The first question to be investigated in a feasibility study then is not "what does DJMA want?" but "what would be supported by the public?" The answer -- a first-class exhibition to fill a niche in the market that would also contribute to the well-being of Dunbar, in addition to developing Muir's ideas.
The outcome of all the discussions, studies and reports so far is a colourful 20-page document 'Wild Rocks, Sea and Sky', making a pitch to the Millennium Commission for just under a million pounds for our John Muir Centre to be sited on the edge of the cliffs a couple of hundred yards from the houses where John Muir was born and spent his boyhood. An existing small building, originally a 1913 'Nightingale hospital' and the last remaining trace of the military barracks in Dunbar, would house interactive exhibitions, an office, and an education room. A new wide-screen cinema/auditorium between the old building and the road could seat about 75 people, and a 'welcome pavilion' would occupy the restricted space between the old building and the cliff edge. The focus would be on provision for children around the age of John Muir when he left Dunbar, but there would be plenty for all age groups to enjoy. The existing cliff-top trail from the Castle to Belhaven and the rest of the John Muir Country Park would be diverted round the new building, and the project would include the restoration of the walkway where it had to be closed for safety reasons a few years ago. Exploration of the shoreline and cave below the Centre would be an additional attraction.
Compared with DJMA's 1995 proposal, the area, capital cost, staff numbers, and projected visitor numbers have each been reduced by a factor of about 3. Our partners in the John Muir Centre Management Group -- Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), East Lothian Council (ELC) and Lothian & Edinburgh Enterprise Limited (LEEL) -- now believe in the long-term viability of the project. The interest of ELC and LEEL has been sustained by the potential contribution of the Centre, as a major attraction, to the county's economy, while SNH sees it as an opportunity to influence a substantial sector of the tourist market which would not otherwise be attracted to 'natural heritage'. For DJMA there is satisfaction that John Muir's life and some aspects of his work could be superbly presented in his home town.
However, as you will be aware, the project was not selected for the Millennium Commission's 1997 long list, but is being held in reserve for possible appraisal should some of the projects that were selected fail to materialise. For the present the John Muir Centre Management Group has been advised not to spend any more time or money on the project. DJMA would be expected to find £250,000, that is a quarter of the funds needed to match the £1 million requested from the Millennium Commission -- this would be a huge challenge. When the idea of a John Muir Centre in Dunbar was first mooted, in 1988, 'environment centres' were rare. In recent years visitor centres, good and not so good, have been springing up everywhere, and many of them set out, like us, to attract schools with something relevant to the 5-14 curriculum on Environmental Education. Similarly, superb films on natural history are now commonplace. As a result potential fund donors, understandably tight-fisted (and rightly so) take a great deal of persuasion before being convinced of the distinctiveness of 'John Muir'. After expending so much effort, not without encouragement and very significant help from anonymous benefactors, LEEL, ELC and SNH, can DJMA conceive of advancing without Millennium funds?
There is no doubt that DJMA has already done much to spread Dunbar's fame as the birthplace of the great John Muir, the place to which Millie Stanley came from Wisconsin to launch her book 'The Heart of John Muir's World' and where Bill Ritch has given in successive years his premieres of plays based on John Muir's life and letters. The Association is more and more being used as a point of contact for those with interests in Muir archives. Office-bearers from the John Muir Memorial Association in Martinez, Board members of the Sierra Club, and descendants of John Muir are among those who have written, e-mailed or visited Dunbar in person. While members of DJMA Council have been happy to meet them and show them round when the notice is adequate, so much more could be done if the Association had a meeting-place and, more fruitfully, a salaried director to harness the enthusiasm and skills of members.
That said, I would like to pay tribute to Duncan Smeed, a man with Muir quotations at his fingertips, who has worked ceaselessly to build and furnish a place for DJMA on the World Wide Web. Not only that, he was Membership Secretary for the first 26 fast-growing months, and Honorary Treasurer for 20 of them: additionally he has edited 8 Newsletters. Duncan does not, however, confine his leisure activities to the keyboard; cutting sea buckthorn and planting marram grass, proposing votes of thanks, dancing with his family at Burns suppers -- he must hold the record for attendance, a total of at least 31 public DJMA events, about the same number of meetings with Council members, and many stints in the shop in Dunbar High Street that the Association rented in 1995/96. One very gratifying result of his activities has been the recent award of a £1000 grant from British Council Scotland to East Lothian's Department of Education which has enabled - amongst other things - Dunbar Primary School to buy a scanner to pioneer creative educational use of the Internet. Do find an opportunity to 'visit' http://www2.prestel.co.uk/dunbar/schools/dps/wtwp/ [update: now permanently homed at http://www.djma.org.uk/dunbar/schools/dps/wtwp/index.html] and find out how different classes are discovering their local hero, John Muir.
Until now, the policy of the Association has followed the discussions held during the summer of 1994 by the Steering Group which launched it, and whose members were all elected to Council at the Inaugural Meeting on 27 July '94. Most of that group will be standing down at the coming AGM, and not all will be wishing to stand for re-election. While these first three years have been dominated by the need to increase membership -- now about 300 -- and the developing plans for the John Muir Centre, there have been many other involvements: notably the annual Burns Suppers, Childrens' Parties and January Exhibitions, not forgetting the very fine Town Trail devised by David Anderson, a 'must' for all members. These involvements have given the Association cohesion which, however, has been sorely tested by the recent 'Pressmennan Affair'. Without dissent every member of the Association's Council considered that this relict sessile oak site should be conserved, but the manner in which this should be achieved aroused passions. I wonder what Muir, with his fine understanding of sustainability, would have proposed? Like any organisation worth its salt, DJMA members, now from many countries, represent a wide spectrum of opinion. There are four main reasons why you, our members, have joined the Association: interest in John Muir as a historical figure; belief that Dunbar's economy can benefit from a John Muir Centre; desire to further the cause of conservation locally; and your concern about the threats to our environment. The new Council will have to formulate the way forward and it will need you to make your views known so that it can take them into account. I hope you will all do so.
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[Editor's note: This text has been kindy provided by Mr Bunyan and was the theme of his talk to the DJMA Spring Gathering in April.]
It seemed that to answer this question two other questions had to be explored. The first required consideration of Dunbar itself. What was it like at that time, both in a physical sense and as a community?
The second question which required consideration was what kind of a person was Daniel Muir and how did he relate to the society in which he found himself and what status did he have? The third area which had to be considered was the nature of the wider world at that time and were there external factors which encouraged him to leave Dunbar?
I propose to consider these matters in more detail.
Wood's map of Dunbar in 1830 gives us a record of the physical layout of the Burgh at the time. There had been little change in the intervening period but two important developments had taken place. The New, or Victoria, harbour had been opened in 1842 and the railway from Edinburgh to Berwick had been constructed and Dunbar station had been opened in 1846.
Both of these developments helped to link Dunbar to the wider world. From Muir's point of view the railway was more significant. Dunbar was however hindered by its ancient boundaries and indeed this was probably emphasised by the railway which itself created a barrier to expansion into recent times. Immediately adjacent to the Burgh were the lands of the local gentry with their mansion houses. It is unlikely that there was social rather than business contacts between their owners and the people in the Burgh.
The High Street was dominated by the various businessmen whose premises and feus were clearly defined on the map. The minister of the Parish Kirk still lived, at that time, in a mansion in the middle of the High Street. The general population was crowded into sub-divisions in the tenements and feus in the High Street and into a close knit fishing community in the area between the old boundary of the burgh and the harbour.
It was a time of great poverty. 'The Hungry Forties' was not just name. It was a reality and Dunbar would be particularly affected by the collapse of the potato harvest in 1846 and 1847. John Muir commented in his later writing how he remembered the bent gnarled poor people in Dunbar.
It was an age of rigid class division. It was possible for individuals to change social class in Britain but it was not easy. It was easier to move downwards rather than upwards. Class consciousness continued unabated until well into this century and has not yet disappeared. It was an age when religion dominated peoples' lives and when religious observance, at least by the respectable classes, was almost taken for granted. The very poor attended less then than some would have us believe. It was a period of wide variety in religious observance. To modern minds Scotland would have seemed over churched. The Church of Scotland had been established as a Presbyterian Church in 1690. This hegemony had been broken by the end of the 18th century. The first challenge came with Ebenezer Erskine's secession in 1733 and others had followed. 1st and 2nd Secession Churches had been established in Dunbar in 1814 and 1820 and the Wesleyan Chapel, the oldest in Scotland, had been established by John Wesley in 1764. The Parish Church had been rebuilt between 1819 - 21 and as a result of the evangelical movement in the Church of Scotland. Belhaven Church had been built and opened in 1840. In 1843 the Disruption occurred. The Free Church was formed and the minister of Belhaven came out and hoped to hold their building as a Free Kirk.
There was at that stage no Roman Catholic Church, though occasional services were held, and there was no Episcopalian Church. It was, however, an era of great religious zeal and no doubt of tension and dispute probably in and between families in the community. We must now ask how Daniel Muir and his family fitted into this scene both socially and in terms of religion.
Daniel was not a Dunbar person. Daniel's father had been a soldier and Daniel was born in 1804 during the Napoleonic Wars. He had been brought to Crawfordjohn from Manchester by his elder sister. He had shown an early interest in wood carving, in fiddle music and in religion. It was also noted that he wanted worldly goods. In 1825 he ran away to Glasgow. He enlisted in the army and by 1829 he came to Dunbar as recruiting sergeant. By the standards of the time this was early promotion. It was also a time when the army was not vigorously recruiting.
He continued his interest in religion and to start with went to the Parish Church. No doubt he would cut an impressive figure in his regimentals and be a source of interest to the girls and no doubt he too had an eye for them. He found one, heiress of a grain and feed store which she was mismanaging. She bought his release from the army. He took over her business and it prospered. They bought 126 High Street. His wife died and Daniel was her sole heir.
His position was much improved. Daniel was now a widower, a man of property, a businessman, and by the attitudes of the time he needed a second wife. He did not look far. On the other side of the street was David Gilrye, a retired flesher, with a wife and two daughters. His eight other children had died. The elder daughter Margaret was married to John Rae, a sea captain; the younger Ann was unmarried. Daniel courted Ann and met with disapproval. It was too soon; he was an upstart and probably an opportunist and was a religious fanatic who by this time had come to disapprove of the established kirk. This was the period of patronage when ministers were appointed by a patron, in this case, the Duke of Roxburghe and David Gilrye had pastured his cattle, etc., in Broxmouth Park. Daniel however was persistent and he and Ann were married in 1833 by Mr Jaffray, the Parish minister.
Ann was loyal to him but found his attitude severe. Her sewing was disapproved of and the children, when they came, were subjected to a rigid discipline. We know from his own writing that when John Muir left Dunbar he knew the whole of the New Testament off by heart. We know he was also discouraged from playing with other boys. From what we know of their exploits this may have been to some extent justified.
Meanwhile Daniel was developing his religious ideas. He was said to be democratic but anti-aristocratic might have been a better description. He had become unhappy with Calvinism because he disliked the idea of predestination. He abhorred patronage. He moved to the seceding groups. He is said to have flirted with Episcopalianism but why, how or where? It seems unlikely but David Gilrye is said to have said 'you will be joining Papacy next.'
Finally he moved to the 'Disciples of Christ' a form of primitive Christianity, the idea of Thomas and Alexander Campbell who had gone to Ohio. It was spread in Scotland by Philip Gray, a stationer in Edinburgh, whose brother brought it to Dunbar. Campbell himself came back to reinvigorate his sect and to encourage like minded persons to emigrate.
Daniel was enthusiastic. He had always liked the idea of wealth. He presumably saw Dunbar as limited, both in terms of financial opportunity and spiritual freedom. The new world presented great opportunities. Land was on offer at little cost. Wealth could be created and he believed he wanted it for God's purposes. He saw no hope of democracy at home. He saw in America a land in which he would have opportunity to prosper. Where wealth would reward effort in a new democratic society without the religious limitations imposed by an established church and the government as in Scotland.
He decided to go. At first he intended to go to Canada but advised by William Greig and others decided instead to go to Wisconsin. Incidentally by-passing better land on the way. Ann and the Gilryes were upset. David Gilrye persuaded him to leave Ann and the younger children behind until a home was established. If disaster struck she at least would be safe. David Gilrye made a will securing his property to his daughters and grandchildren. He must still have seen Daniel as an opportunist.
On the 19th February 1849, the unprecedented announcement was made. "Bairns you need na' learn your lessons tonight for we're gaun to America the morn." Daniel was a man of forty five facing the new world and its challenges relatively old, and certainly middle aged, by the standards of the time. John, on the other hand, was not quite eleven - young to be expected to work as a pioneer. David was nine. Sarah the second daughter who also went thirteen.
Alexander Gray helped them to get established and on an eighty acre farm at Fountain Lake Daniel built a suitable house with eight rooms. The workmen called it 'a palace' and in November he was joined by Ann and the other children. From 1850, John, a boy of twelve, was set to the plough. We know from Robert Burns' similar experiences that this was too heavy a task for a growing boy. This was the beginning of Daniel Muir's policy of sacrificing his family to the Lord's work. Daniel himself preferred preaching to working and became increasingly austere. The deteriorating relationship between father and family - especially John - is not however the theme of this account. In Daniel Muir however we see a man not at ease with himself, or at ease with the community nor with his family and probably despite his zeal not at ease with his God.
Stephen Bunyan
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Lothians and Borders FWAG, with the backing of SNH, are hoping to launch a "Lowlands Meadows Initiative" to attempt to conserve remaining fragments of ecologically important unimproved grassland in the South East of Scotland. Pilot projects are being set up to conserve existing sites and attempt to make meadow management more economically viable in the modern farming environment
The harvesting and sale of wildflower seed is a potentially lucrative way of keeping meadows in use. The demand for wildflower seed of known, local origin is increasing not only for improving the diversity of existing swards but also for use as a low cost and simple option for setaside ground and road verges. At present, the seed for this type of planting comes from Lincolnshire and further afield and is not always totally appropriate for our local conditions.
To succeed we need existing sites, to conserve, harvest and enhance. We also need to create a market for the seed so it is used to increase the area of grassland/wildflower sites, thus snaking the project commercially viable as well as improving our environment.
It seems to me this might be a challenge Dunbar's John Muir Association might relish!
Michael Williams
Lothian and Bordes FWAG
Eaglescairnie Mains
[Editor's note: Garth Morrison had a related article published in the East Lothian Courier on July 4th, p20. Seed-collection is a very new business; a major project for it in The Weald was in the news recently because, despite the support of FWAG, the English equivalent of SNH and all sorts of other worth-while bodies, it failed to get Lottery funding. DJMA involvement in a local scheme is to be encouraged. A visit to Garth Morrison's farm at West Fenton has also been arranged. See Forthcoming Events for further details.]
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Portage, WI The Sierra Club announces the U.S. launch of its "John Muir Youth Award" program in the U.S.A., modeled after the original program in Scotland.
The first 19 elementary school children to receive the new John Muir Youth Award ('Discovery' Level), are from the Room 222 Fourth Grade class co-taught by Mrs. Bindl and Diane Weiss at the John Muir Elementary School, in Portage, Wisconsin. The Portage school is noteworthy, because Portage was the nearest town to Muir's boyhood home in Wisconsin, only 10 or 12 miles away.
Just as John Muir emigrated to America from Scotland, so the "John Muir Youth Award" program began in Scotland last year under the auspices of the John Muir Trust. Some 29 "John Muir Schools" across the United States were invited to participate in the U.S. launch of the youth award program, with Portage's "John Muir Elementary School" being the first to receive the awards. In order to receive a John Muir Youth Award the children had to address 5 challenges:
The children at Portage's John Muir Elementary School have completed Level One (Discovery Award) of the John Muir Youth Award by spending more than 22 hours over a three month period on these projects. All students who complete the program of at least 15 hours may receive the Discovery Award. Higher-level awards are planned for the future.
The children at Portage's John Muir Elementary School discovered, explored and conserved wildness right on their own doorstep - a part of the forested school grounds so wild it does not even have name!
They looked at wild plants, trees, birds, insects and animals. They drew pictures of the animals that had this place as their habitat, and made tree posters identifying the trees by their leaves.
They made maps of this wild place, including animal homes, and drew pictures of animals and trees of this wild place in different seasons. The students shared their activities and displayed their pictures on a bulletin board at the school and at the county fair. They also wrote letters to other students at other John Muir Schools in the U.S., telling them about their area. To help conserve this wild place, they carried out a litter clean-up. In exploring John Muir's life they watched a film, "Explore the Wilderness," read a biography of Muir by Sally Tolan, and read passages from The Story of My Boyhood and Youth by John Muir, most appropriately the chapter on "Life on a Wisconsin Farm." The students kept "John Muir Journals" and discussed their entries with the class.
Diane Weiss, the students' teacher, said that "working on the John Muir Youth Award helped to increase student's appreciation for natural areas, helping them to understand how development affects wildlife habitat. The children also learned about the importance in the history of the Westward expansion of Muir's role in keeping some natural areas protected."
Harold W. Wood, Jr., the chair of the Sierra Club Environmental Education Committee which initiated the program in the U.S. said, "These students are the environmental leaders of the future. The Sierra Club is proud to encourage these students to learn about wilderness, and to learn about John Muir, who was so important in encouraging the preservation of America's wilderness." Each student was awarded a full-color Certificate of Achievement, a work of art in its own right, containing photography from noted photographer Galen Rowell together with a historical photo and an inspirational quote from John Muir.
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The majority of DJMA members joined the Association between its inauguration on 27th July 1994 and its public launch on 29th September 1994. At a recent Council Meeting a proposal to adopt a single date for renewals of membership was accepted. This would help reduce the overheads of volunteer time and postal expense that arise from not having a defined, yearly, subscription start date. Consequently, the date chosen for renewed and new membership subscriptions is now 1st September to 31st August. Renewal reminders for existing members will be sent out with the AGM mailshot. Talking of the AGM...
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The Narthex, Dunbar Parish Church, has been booked for the evening of Wednesday 3 September, 1997, for the AGM. J Morton Boyd will be our guest speaker and will talk on 'Wilderness and Civilization -- a personal reflection'. Further details will be sent out with the AGM mailing.
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The College of the Siskiyous has just added more Muir documents to the Mount Shasta Collection Page, all articles from the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin of 1874 and 1877. They are "Modoc Memories," "Notes from Shasta," "Salmon Breeding," "Shasta Bees," "Shasta Game," and "Shasta in Winter." The URL for the Muir Page in the Mount Shasta Collection is: http://www.siskiyous.edu/Library/ShastaCollection/Literature/jmuir/index.html
"A Rival of the Yosemite" (Nov. 1892): http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/a_rival_of_the_yosemite/
"Yosemite Glaciers," by John Muir, New York Tribune, December 5, 1871. (John Muir's earliest published work) and "Yosemite in Winter" and "Yosemite in Spring" published in the Tribune in 1872. At: http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/
The John Muir Education discussion list is sponsored by the Environmental Education Committee of the Sierra Club to host discussions about the life and contributions of the Sierra Club's founder, John Muir.
Participants may discuss anything about John Muir. The focus is on projects relating to the Sierra Club's John Muir Education Project -- the John Muir Day Study Guide, the John Muir Youth Award program, and the John Muir Exhibit World Wide Web site, http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/ Teachers in K-12 or college teaching are especially invited to participate. Anyone, whether or not a Sierra Club member, may subscribe. Here is the basic information about the new list:
We look forward to your participation!
Muir Power to You,
Harold Wood
hwood@lightspeed.net
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The new play - "Vagabond John" - by Bill Ritch was premiered in Dunbar Grammar School on Saturday 31st May 1997.
"Vagabond John" is a one-hour, one-man show inspired by the life of Scottish-American nature mystic John Muir. Events take place in real-time at an unspecified single location, probably towards the end of Muir's life. They include flash-backs, dreams, memories and hallucinations.
Acclaimed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year with a five-star review in 'The Scotsman', American actor Bill Ritch is John Muir - "Vagabond John" - the great and lonely outdoorsman whose passion for the wilderness won the foundation of the American national parks system. This new and exciting production breaks the boundaries between internal consciousness and external reality; between past, present and future, and shows nature's unequal struggle for survival and protection against the all-consuming demands of population and industrial expansion.
Although drawn entirely from the letters and journals of John Muir, - and his life-long friend Jeanne Carr - for dramatic purposes the character and chronology of people, places and events have been substantially fictionalised. Original research and development by Bill Ritch. Adapted and dramatised by Richard Penny who also directs.
A memorable event that was not be missed...
Bill Ritch gave an inspired, and inspiring performance. If you were unfortunate enough not to see it then, you now have an opportunity to see it at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
...but if you didn't make it...
The play is also being performed at the The Famous Grouse House, 5 Chambers Street, Edinburgh. Tel: 0131 220 56069, WWW: www.ticketserver.co.uk/grouse/getthere.htm on Aug 20 - 30 for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe: http://www.edfringe.com/
On behalf of Dunbar's John Muir Association I'd like to thank the pupils and teachers of classes P1A, P3B, P4C and P7A of Dunbar Primary School for all their efforts in making the newIMAGES project - Wild Things Wid Places - such a success. The childrens' projects are being 'published' on the World Wide Web at http://www2.prestel.co.uk/dunbar/schools/dps/wtwp/ [update: now permanently homed at http://www.djma.org.uk/dunbar/schools/dps/wtwp/index.html] and Australian schools will soon be invited to 'visit' and collaborate in our project - the first of its kind in Scotland. DJMA is supporting this newIMAGES project by providing resources about (i) John Muir and (ii) the Internet & World Wide Web.
Duncan Smeed djma@cs.strath.ac.uk
This class of 26 five-year old children embarked on this study of a local seabird colony through a series of learning encounters.
To begin with, these children are in their first year of education and attend our primary school which is currently celebrating its own centenary. The first step, therefore, was to use the school badge as a link with the past. They are familiar with it and wear it on their school sweatshirts. They could see that it represents the sea, the castle and the seabirds of Dunbar.
Next, the children were able to investigate the castle on a weekly basis and become very familiar with it as they went for swimming lessons at the brand new pool overlooking the castle. Again there was the continuity of the old, the new and the ever present sea. They could not fail to notice the seabirds on the cliffs.
I introduced the children to the character of John Muir by storytelling, sharing his boyhood memories of Dunbar, acting out some of his boyhood experiences and going to see places he would have seen himself as a boy. This continued the link with the past and made him seem a real person to the children, someone very like themselves. We learned more from the pupils in P3 who had made a more detailed study of John Muir's life and work.
The next step was to go back to the castle and look on the birds there in much the same way as John Muir would have done. We learned they were a nesting colony of kittiwakes. We had the invaluable assistance of the local Countryside Ranger during a field trip who gave the pupils and myself much information about the life of the birds and the colony. The pupils were able to portray this information in various media e.g. artwork, photography, music, speech and drama.
Future action will continue to build empirically on these learning experiences. The children will continue to observe the chicks life cycle. They could work with local civic or tourist agencies to set up information boards, become involved in the ringing programme, investigate the local eco-system and perhaps identify a threat to the birds food supply. They will develop their own opinions, knowledge and study skills, with an informed approach to conservation. They will share their experiences and work with others both within the school and worldwide on the Internet thanks to the newIMAGES project.
Helen Stewart
During their final term in primary three, pupils study the core theme Dunbar Past and Present. This proved to be an ideal link to study John Muir, our choice of Local Hero for our Wild Things Wild Places project.
Firstly the children were introduced to John Muir, using his autobiography My Boyhood and Youth. We looked at specific events in his early life in Dunbar, in the 1840s. We learned how he had been taught his alphabet from shop signs and numerals using the town clock. We discovered why he had been afraid to walk home from school and how he had played dares with his brother. John Muir soon became a real person who had lived in our town. The next step was to visit buildings that had been in use in the 1840s and compare their appearance and use with that of the present day.
Pupils will be able to share their information and experiences with other pupils worldwide via the internet.
Jayne Gray
I became involved in this project mainly through my interest in IT and how it could be used effectively in the classroom to enhance the quality of education. The next step was to identify a topic which would fit in with the project title.
The four classes involved were going to be working on an aspect connected with Dunbar's local hero - John Muir. This also had to fit in with the area of study the P4 class would be untertaking as part of their class work. During this time the class was to be studying the core theme of FARMING which on the face of it looks as if we would be studying land of a cultivated nature. However an easily identifiable source of a wild place connected with the countryside was that of the HEDGEROW. John Muir in his Dunbar days loved to wander in the fields. His earliest recollections of the country were when he went on walks with his grandfather when he was three. He also went to the fields with his friends to hear the birds sing. Birds such as the skylark and the mavis. His love of nature obviously began in Dunbar.
Our aim would be to study a particular piece of hedgerow, ideally within walking distance of the school to have an in depth look at what we could find there, photograph these findings and once back at school research some information about what we found. This information would then be accessed on the DPS Web site.
A longer term aim would be to study the identified area at different times of the year to see the changes that occur over a period of a year. The class has also discussed the broader issues involved concerning the loss of hedgerows and what farmers could be doing to prevent this.
This project is proving to be interesting, exciting and challenging our knowledge of IT but it should enable schools in different countries to share environmental information and to compare and contrast this information with their own environment.
Elizabeth Cowan
Primary 7A is made up of 31 pupils who completed their seven years at Primary School in June.
Their Environmental Studies theme for the term has been Water and it is information gathered for this, that they are using as their part of Wild Things Wild Places.
Initial research concentrated on what water is and its uses and sources. From there the class moved on to researching it as a resource and the problems which can affect its supply. During discussions, great concern has been expressed about local and national incidents of pollution along our coasts, in rivers and seas. The children are concentrating their thoughts on this and how things have changed in the last 150 years, imagining what John Muir would think of the town of his birth now.
Fiona Waddell
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Saturday, 19th July 1997
Garth Morrison has kindly offered to host a visit by DJMA members to his farm at West Fenton. Mr Morrison is piloting a setaside scheme using wildflowers and special grass mix. To find out more details and/or book a place please phone 01368 864270.
Bobby Anderson, Countryside Ranger for John Muir Country Park, has offered the following dates for DJMA members to become involved in projects within the Country Park. All offers of assistance should be made by 'phoning 01368 862 593, giving as much notice as possible, so that a suitable workforce may be organised. The timescale for these days is a couple of hours each.
Sunday, 27th July, 10am Task: Signs. Meet: Promptly at Shore Road Car Park
Sunday, 10th August, 10am Task: Buckthorn. Meet: Promptly at Linkfield Car Park
Sunday, 21st Sept., 10am Task: TBA. Meet: TBA
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