I WELCOME the letter from John Macnab (Letters April 19) in response to mine of April 17 documenting the lack of material wealth in the heritage of most Scots. Neither of us is advocating poverty, merely pointing out that there is more to life than the size of an individual bank balance or the physical equivalent in house size or car make.

My mother was the only daughter and last of 10 born in a miners' row in Carnbroe, North Lanarkshire. There were no pit head showers. A tin bath in front of the living room fire served the needs of my miner grandfather and his nine miner sons. The bath water would be distinctly gritty when the last in line took his turn. They were hard times and produced hard men and tough women. But there was an enduring sense of community. A thirst for learning could be satisfied at the local library. It was possible to rise above your station. My grandmother was from Blantyre and a cotton mill family David Livingston was one of their neighbours in the town.

Wednesday’s editorial ("Government must learn lessons of school poverty gap", The Herald April 18) deals with the issue in its modern context. Very few of our current school pupils live in poverty in the world sense but some are labelled as from “deprived communities” or marked by a “poverty stigma”. These labels can themselves be damaging. There is a real danger in attaching labels to groups of individuals. Invariably, the group takes on the identity of the label and then behaves in the manner society as a whole expects.

It should be the function of the Scottish education system to ensure that every pupil has the resources and support to succeed, to develop their individual talents and maximize their potential. Our young people are our renewable resource. We neglect it at our peril.

Please don’t blunt the ambition of anyone by applying an inappropriate label.

John Black,

The Scottish Jacobite Party, 6 Woodhollow House, Helensburgh.

I THOUGHT when reading the letter from Ian W Thomson (April 19) that the observation that poverty has an effect on the attainment of pupils always was and still remains blindingly obvious. As someone who attended primary school in the mid-1950s the description of disadvantaged pupils – "there are those today going to school hungry", "poverty-related mental and physical issues", "children arriving at school dirty, with defective teeth and unsuitable shoes etc" – could have been written to describe many of my fellow pupils in my primary school.

The current SNP Government has to take responsibility for the very serious failings in the current school system levels of attainment and also for issues surrounding poverty within Scottish communities during its terms of office, however, perhaps it is a tad unfair for this Government to shoulder all responsibility and that at least some should be shared between all governments of whatever hue since the 1950s.

John S Milligan,

86 Irvine Road, Kilmarnock.