SIR,—Miss Kendon has had unrivalled oppor- tunities for observing the
children of the New Areas, but perhaps things will turn out better than she fears, In the long run the children's insipidity may prove to have been of less importance than the orderliness and plenty of their homes. Their parents and grand- parents probably grew up under circum- stances, and in an atmosphere which provided some stimulus towards realising that bread alone is not enough—and during childhood they may have developed ' sturdy British backbone '; yet how readily today they accept the comforts of existence among dreary, semi-detached, scarlet-roofed dwell- ings I
Surely it is as well that, while very young, working-class children should be tractable and content rather than nervous' and intro- spective. There is plenty of time for them to wake up when they are older, for maturer minds to look beyond life's surface and form opinions of their own. Sooner or later a fresh book or a new friend is likely, despite the wishy-washiness apparent to Miss Kendon, to cause some of these children to question the adequacy of their parents' purely material values. For the sake of peace in the home and in the classroom it seems better that it should be later.
In predicting the shape of future genera- tions one tends, perhaps, to underrate the part so often played by reaction working like a pendulum between successive sets of parents and children. Those of the New Estate boys and girls who decide, as they near their twenties, to fight their own battles, spiritual and aesthetic, will at least have the advantage of well-nourished bodies and con- siderable education. Those who do not will presumably in any event make conscientious and pleasant, citizens.—Yours faithfully,
JOHN WOODFORD@
Breadbare's, Oakwood, Chichester, Sussex
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