Two stories from the chalk face grabbed my attention this week. Merchiston Castle, the independent Edinburgh boys’ school, is to become the first in Scotland to introduce compulsory Mandarin classes for pupils aged 8-10. In Glasgow, meanwhile, 47 primary schools are introducing toothbrushing lessons for pupils aged 5-12.

The comparison is not intended to belittle the Glasgow initiative, which is a worthwhile project. Toothbrushing schemes in Glasgow nursery schools have already led to a threefold increase in the number of under-fives without cavities. But it does appear, at first sight, to illustrate the growing gulf between the state and the independent sector.

In March, Gordon Brown announced that state schools would match the spending per pupil of private schools. That led to the well-documented froideur between the chancellor and Jack McConnell dropping another couple of degrees — the move being interpreted by the first minister as an attempt to position Westminster’s tanks on Holyrood’s playing fields.

But while more money for education is always welcome, the government’s focus on funding misses the point. Money is the least important aspect of private education, and I speak as somebody who has shelled out the thick end of £100,000 on school fees in the past seven years. In Scotland, the state spends £5,428 on every secondary school pupil; the average private-school fee is £5,820. The difference between the average state school and the average private school is not £400 a head, however. It is a gulf in expectation the size of the Grand Canyon.

The point was proven this week by St Andrew’s secondary school in Carntyne, Glasgow, which became the first mainstream school in Scotland — in either sector — to be deemed “excellent” in five areas by HM Inspectorate of Education. The school, in one of the most deprived areas of Glasgow, has three times more children from families on benefit than the national average. Yet, when asked about the secret of its success, Bruce Malone, the head teacher of 15 years, didn’t mention money but cited discipline and the very highest expectations in all areas.

It has become axiomatic in this country that children from deprived areas are destined to fail educationally. Yet 60 years ago, a generation of Scots pulled themselves out of poverty by means of education. It is only since the disastrous educational experiments of the 1970s that poverty has become a convenient blanket excuse for failure.

We are part of the fourth-richest country in the world. The average income in Scotland has doubled in the past 30 years and is on course to do so again in the next 30. Our continued insistence on blaming poverty for our educational failures in spite of contradictory evidence is perverse.

In 1999 Douglas Ostler, then Scotland’s chief inspector of schools, said in an interview with The Sunday Times that what needed raising was not funding but “teachers’ expectations of pupils”. Most children at most stages of school could be achieving a lot more.

It is an innate understanding of this truth that unites St Andrew’s, Carntyne, and Merchiston Castle. At Merchiston the expectation is that every pupil will be able to grasp at least basic Chinese.

At St Andrew’s the expectation is not that children will not know one end of a toothbrush from another, but that staff, pupils and parents will work together to “deliver the highest quality of teaching and learning possible”.

Nowhere is our lowering of expectations more glaring than in the teaching of languages. In the three years since the Scottish executive made the subject voluntary, the number of pupils studying languages in secondary schools has slumped by 13%. Last year only 602 pupils sat Advanced Higher French.

We introduce language teaching far too late in Scotland. I believe every child should at the age of seven be offered the opportunity to learn a language, a musical instrument and a sport. Children, particularly in the early years, have a huge desire and capacity to learn.

Not all of them will be able to take these opportunities, but the expectation should be that the majority will. This is the way most independent schools function.

Merchiston Castle is to be applauded for its foresight. It has introduced Mandarin because of its increased global significance. By 2050, China is expected to be the leading global economy. But just as importantly, Merchiston is introducing a challenging subject that has the potential to broaden horizons.

Our low expectations of children’s capabilities, an emphasis on making lessons “fun” at the expense of making them relevant or rigorous and our concerns about “pressurising” pupils means children are conditioned to drop subjects that challenge them. Money will not fix this; it needs a fundamental attitude change.

It is the Lewis Carroll approach to education. As the Gryphon remarked: “The reason they are called lessons is because they lessen from day to day.”

What we need in the classroom is less Alice in Wonderland and a bit more great expectations.

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