19 MARCH 1977, Page 18

Sir Edmund Leach replies

Sir: I have only now had my attention drawn to Ferdinand Mount's vulgar comment (5 March) on my Observer piece (20 February). Mount's article is about three times as long as that which it criticises but ignores most of what I say. I hold no brief for McLuhan. The point of my article was simply this. There are many thousands of adults in these islands whose school education has taught them to feel ashamed of the fact that they are barely literate even though they may possess h igh competence at such other modes of expression as music, mathematics, electronics, sculpture, painting, dance, photography, architectural design etc. etc. I did not argue that literacy is useless but only that it is not so pre-eminently useful that illiterate persons should be blacklisted as incompetent or that the success or failure of an educational system should be measured by the crude statistic of the proportion of school leave] s who are moderately proficient at reading and writing their mother tongue.

For my own part I get greater mindstretching excitement from 'reading' electronic circuits (composed in a script which I share with like-minded characters in Japan and Hong Kong) than I do from reading silly articles in the Spectator; I see no reason why should be rated a moron on that account. If there are people who get greater pleasure from playing chess than from reading the novels ofJane Austen, why not ?

So indeed, to repeat Mr Mount's words: 'If you cannot read or write do not worry. You may be much wiser than those whocan.' Certainly much wiser than Mr Mount.

(Sir) Edmund Leach The Provost's Lodge, King's College, Cambridge