THOSE of us who had problems with maths at school are in for a rough ride. Sooner rather than later, we will have to get used to thinking in euros. Whether on holiday or in business, the new super-currency parked like a tank on our borders will demand our full concentration. Are you ready?

It won't be easy. Start with the basics. At current market rates a euro would be worth roughly 58p. So there will be no handy ''10 to one'' calculation like the French Franc. The Herald in your hands cost less than one euro, but how much less needs a little longer to work out.

In fact, buying your favourite paper in euro-land would mean handing over about 82 cents in shiny new coins with the Queen - or perhaps President Salmond - one one side and a very small map of Europe on the other.

Or try this one. What do you say when your children demand their weekly pocket money? A survey this week says Scottish parents are more generous than their counterparts in England, paying out an average #2.74 a week. But how much is that in euros? Best to withhold payment until the kids work it out for themselves (answer: 4.72 euros).

The students at Plockton High School will be taking a hard look at the euro on Saturday to mark Europe Day. An exhibition organised by the European Movement and the school's Euro-enthusiast rector Duncan Ferguson will mark a small northern triumph for the nascent campaign to educate Scotland about the single currency.

Mr Ferguson, a self-described Euro-Gael who teaches Latin and European Studies to fifth and sixth years, is proud of Plockton High's connections with schools elsewhere in Europe. His students are part of the Young European Movement.

Informal polling in his classrooms suggests opinion among his future voters, who may one day have to decide yes or no in a referendum, is running in favour of monetary union. ''We have to make them aware of it. With Objective One status our area is very conscious of being a remote but special part of Europe,'' he says.

Charles Kennedy, the local Liberal Democrat MP and leading light in the European Movement, is counting on the Highlands to lead the way in converting Britain to the merits of monetary union. From registering a resounding No in the 1975 European referendum, he thinks the region would now record an 80% vote in favour of closer links with the EU.

Lashings of European subsidy for much-needed infrastructure projects only partly explain the conversion. The international outlook of much of the Highlands' native industries is also responsible. Whether it's fish farms exporting to continental restaurants, or oil companies shipping around the world, the Highlands is a classic example of how monetary union will have an immediate impact on us regardless of whether Britain joins or not.

''An awful lot of jobs in the Highlands are wholly dependent on exports and international linkages. The people running those companies will have to operate with a parallel currency. The Highlands may be on the periphery of Europe, but nonetheless is going to be much more integrated into the process of monetary union than other parts of Britain,'' he said.

Plockton may be the most remote venue for Europe Day's single currency initiative, but it won't be the only one. There will be information points in more than 80 towns and cities, including Dundee, Glasgow, Inverness, Forfar and Edinburgh. There will be a single currency information hotline (0990 011 997) and the opportunity to order packs full of gleaming pro-Emu propaganda paid for by Brussels.

Make no mistake. The debate has shifted from if to when. The scale of the project under way in 11 countries means we will soon have a trading block responsible for a fifth of the world's output - equal to the United States - on our doorstep. It will stretch from Donegal to Sicily and account for a population approaching 300 million.

The City is already getting ready. Momentum is building behind the idea of British membership. Plockton on Saturday is merely the first whisper in the campaign to persuade us to dump the pound and tie our economic and political future to Europe.

Viewed in the calm that followed Saturday night's shambles in Brussels, the value of an open and vigorous public debate becomes all the more clear. After hearing president Jacques Chirac admit his priority is defending French interests, we need to hear the people of Plockton and elsewhere tell us what their national priorities are.