SECONDARY MODERN SIR,—Last September, after five years' University experience, I
entered a secondary. modern school in this town. I have learnt a great deal in that time : that five years was certainly not wasted.
Of course, the concentration of children in such a school is weak—that is why they are not in a gram- mar school. Very few of my lessons consist of half an hour's reading—it is the teacher's work to make the lesson as interesting as possible within the scope of the syllabus. Certainly, it is the teacher's job to stop children's attention wandering to the window ! When concentration fails, a new method of teaching must be introduced.
As to Colm Brogan's suggestion that grammar- school children are more mature than modern-school children. I do not believe it. I know of no boy who is 'emotionally mature' at fifteen.—Yours faithfully, ARMON LEWIS 83 Nursery Road, Moordown, Bournemouth
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