Letter: Harsh lessons

I read with increasing disbelief and dismay Michael Kelly's comment on teachers (2 December). What makes it more depressing is the fact that this diatribe comes from someone who should know better.

The tone is set in the opening paragraph with the preposterous claim that "all of us… have witnessed the carelessness, indifference and cruelty practised by many (teachers)".

Clearly, he was much exercised by the issue of corporal punishment, but fails to acknowledge there were many, not cruel, but decent and hard-working teachers who genuinely believed its retention was needed. In the event, many individuals and some authorities did not wait for legislative change to end the practice.

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The comments on the McCrone report would be laughable if they were not so vicious, with puerile references to bunking off and going to the pub. A number of surveys have demonstrated that many teachers work well beyond their contractual hours.

And what of the Donaldson Review submission by the Scottish Council of Independent Schools? It can be argued that some students' deficiencies in literacy and numeracy are attributable to the way they were taught. Mr Kelly declares the fault to be "yesterday's teachers", implying widespread professional inadequacy. He should know that those teachers, many against their better judgment, were responding to pressure from curriculum developers who, in trying to promote more creativity and "relevance", made the mistake of throwing the grammatical and arithmetical babies out with the bath water.

Sadly, the article ends as it began, talking about class teachers as "recalcitrant subordinates" and making sweeping references to low standards in education. None of this will help a genuinely critical and balanced assessment of the education system.

Alasdair Mackintosh

Cramond Vale

Edinburgh

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