Corpun file 23052
The Observer, London, 14 April 1974
Letters to the Editor
Ethos plus the stick
As a teacher who has worked in three comprehensive schools, I am absolutely dumbfounded by the attitude of your Education Correspondent (last week), concerning the demise of another 'progressive' headmaster.
I am in a school where there is proper consultation with staff who in various ways help the Headmaster to determine the ethos of the school. This has produced (in my opinion) an excellent school compared with those run by so-called 'progressives.' The staff are confident (but not brutal) and the pupils have a proper, ordered, framework in which (a) they can make their views known and (b) they can be punished when they step out of line.
On a recent school trip, I administered corporal punishment to at least seven pupils (15-year-old lads) for what I considered serious infringements, i.e. causing me to leave my bed at night! Not only did they accept it with good grace but several of them later apologised for making life more difficult.
Teachers are fed up to the back teeth being preached at by education correspondents, lecturers, advisors, etc. -- or anyone else who has rejected teaching as a career.
Peter Jones
Rainhill, Lancs.
