SIR, —Mr P. J. Middleton (September 30) says: 'We still permit
men to teach boys who have never been sent to a proper training establishment.' J. F. Rox- burgh, Stowe's first headmaster, would say Mr Middleton had begged a big question. (I assume that his 'who' refers to the 'men' not the 'boys'—as it does by sense if not by grammar.) I served as a master under Roxburgh for ten years, and he told me he would never appoint any master with a teacher's certificate because while a master without one would have to serve two years before he bad become worth his salary to the school even with the advantage of knowing he knew nothing, a certi- ficated master would take three or four years to become worth having, because he would have been robbed of the advantage of knowing his ignorance.
In my first headmastership I tried in my first term to appoint a foreign-trained physical education teacher without a teacher's certificate. An angry governor fixed me with a glare and said: `Do you really mean to say you want us to appoint an un- trained teacher to OUR school?' I replied : 'You yourselves appointed an untrained teacher to be your headmaster last summer; and, incidentally, the head- master of Eton is an untrained teacher.' There was complete silence. My appointee has done well.
I am not saying the teacher's training course is useless; only that the matter is a good deal less simple than Mr Middleton seems to think.
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