Catriona Stewart: Teachers should be feted - look at all we ask of them

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Earlier this month academics from the University of Salford decreed, "education must be adapted to help children recognise fake news". At a global summit attended by Prince William, research was presented that concludes children should be taught Digital Literacy in schools from the age of six.

Also this month, the National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS) gave its support to a campaign to introduce lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex education into Scottish schools. The call is linked to the Time for Inclusive Education (Tie) campaign, which wants new legislation to enshrine LGBTI education as a requirement for all schools.

The SNP MP Gavin Newlands put forward in October his suggestion that lessons about consent and domestic abuse are made a mandatory part of the curriculum and children from the age of four are taught about the issues.

The Bank of England has suggested it should be compulsory for schools to teach their pupils about finance and economics.

Children's mental health and wellbeing is seen as a responsibility of schools with nurture corners and nurture classrooms tackling the issue in some. In others mindfulness and yoga are taught.

Outdoor play has become a hot topic over the past five or so years with schools encouraged to provide outdoor experiences for children's development, health and, again, wellbeing.

Good manners were also mentioned earlier this year as a responsibility of schools.

Our primaries and secondaries also do a power of work on non-traditional education topics such as human rights, overseas aid and the environment so it's not that teachers are currently sticking rigidly to reading, writing and arithmetic and need something else to do. In fact, you wonder when they might have the time to crack out the times tables, distracted as they are by solving the nation's problems. How to find the time in the day to do all these things?

And in Glasgow teachers have to do all this against a backdrop of knowing local parents would rather get their kids over the border to East Renfrewshire, no matter how hard they work.

Highlight a problem and education is the go-to solution. There is something sweetly idealistic about expecting schools to be the panacea for every issue, to put one's faith in education every time one feels bellicose about a problem. It makes sense though.

In children we see the potential for life as we would like it to be. They are a front for our own self-interest so that thwarted ambition can be rectified by opening up opportunities to young people. Life's disappointments can be soothed by smoothing the path of one's own child. And so it stands to reason that we want schools to offer as much as possible for easing their transition through childhood and young adulthood into adulthood itself. If all these issues - anxiety, homophobia, bullying, financial profligacy - are to be solved en masse then where better to do it than in a school where the masses are a captive audience.

Of course, parents and the public should be tackling these issues but not all children have active and engaged parents. Not all non-parents feel comfortable correcting another's child or intervening, say, on public transport when they overhear bullying.

I wonder what teachers think when they read suggestions about how the curriculum might be expanded, especially when there are no suggestions for additional resources.

There were 795 teaching posts vacant when pupils returned to school after the summer holidays this year. Trust between the Government and the profession is shattered. The implementation of Curriculum for Excellence has led to a loss of experienced staff.

Why then, if education is the solution to all, are not teachers the most feted members of society? They have, by not theirs but by others' admission, the keys to the kingdom.