Educationalists Sir: Educationalists have certainly a lot to answer for
in the prevailing state of virtual educational chaos. Their sponsorship of the 'new' primary schooling is at last being called to account—although the apologetic manner in which criticism seems to be offered indicates just how much in thrall to trendy thinking we are these days in matters of schooling! Parents and others have been increasingly worried about the collapse1n primary standards over some years. Chief sufferers have been the children themselves. How often has one encountered children genuinely and often acutely distressed because they could not seem to be able to spell, to read adequately, even to write legibly when all they needed was systematic and sensible instruction in basic skills, so often denied them in the frenzied and often mindless world of the trendy priMarY school!
Unfortunately unthinking innovation now also threatens pupils at the secondary phase. Already children find themselves herded into vast establishments dedicated to dubious sociological ends, such as fostering so-called togetherness. The cult of mixed ability teaching, the denigration of exams and all the manifestations of anti-intellectual bias destroy hope of establishing decent standards—and once again it is the puPlis who are the losers. In the end there will have to be a repudia" tion of much of the current nonsense rnas" querading as educational advance. Perhaps it is too much to hope that one day those who would parade themselves as educationalists must first serve many years in the classroom where some much-needed cornmonsense might first be acquired. It seerns all too easy these days to acquire a reputr3; tion by pandering to fashionable social ano even political notions rather than by doing justice to the real needs of pupils.
J. H. K. Lockhart 21B King's Avenue, London W5
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