A salutary menace
Sir: The disagreement between myself and the chairman of the Association for the Teaching of the Social Sciences (Letters, I December) is confined, I think, to whether the teaching of systematic sociological theory in secondary schools can ever be anything but second-best. I am personally sceptical. (We would not disagree about the value and feasibility of teaching how various parts of human societies actually work.) As a supporter of the aims of Mr Brown's association, I would be glad to be convinced that I am wrong.
As for the title 'The menace of sociology' which you chose for my article, this was clearly an editorial device to arrest the attention of the casual reader, and I do not think it was 'disgraceful' as Mr Brown does. No one reading my article could possibly have been left with the impression that it was an act of vandalism against sociology as a whole. In any case, the sociology teachers whom I was principally criticising believe that their subject does offer a menace to the established order — and that this menace is a thoroughly salutary one.
Jonathan Benthall Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 56 Queen Anne Street, London W1
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