12 MARCH 2005, Page 21

Japanese discipline

From Robert Walls

Sir: Rod Liddle says it is time that British teachers took back control of the classroom (‘Children can’t be trusted’, 5 March). When I was in Japan a few years ago, a local newspaper carried a report about a teacher who beat two of his teenage pupils to death. The tone of the article suggested that, while the boys certainly deserved a beating, perhaps the teacher had gone a little far on this occasion.

Young people in Japan are very well behaved.

Robert Walls Camberley, Surrey