27 JANUARY 1973, Page 26

Standards in schools

Sir: It is five or six years since last 1 wrote, the interval coinciding with your last editorial concerning teacher supply.

You are, I suggest, mistaken in laying the blame for poor standards at the door of the class teacher. Like anyone else at the bottom of the heap, he stays right there, unless he swings with the head, the administrator, the educationist, the theorist, and that chap with so much real life experience and every Wednesday afternoon free. The teacher, like Tommy and AC1 Plonk, is a romantic idea, a mere shadow to the substance of the lead players, and if you, sir, wish to change policy by way of new interpretations of education purpose, then I suggest you move into the arena of decision-making and that doesn't mean another editorial in 1978. Slick comparisons with Scotland and whatever contribute nothing. Like all branches of politics, unless you participate you carry no weight at all and help nobody, least of all the kiddiwinks.

J. Barr 27 Featherstone Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham