'Problems at home'
Sir: While agreeing with Jake Fletcher ('Black market discipline', 15 September) that teachers in desperation sometimes practise 'unofficial' physical punishment. I cannot accept his apparent assumption that the abolition of caning is at the root of the current chaotic state of affairs in many British schools. Schools never have been and never could be successfully run on a motive power of violence alone. The pre- sent malaise goes deeper: there is a fre- quent refusal on the part of school author- ities to regard pupils as having any respon- sibility for their own actions, which stems from a 'sociological' attitude to behaviour according to which it is taken as axiomatic that bad behaviour is both invariably caused by, and always excusable by, 'prob- lems at home'. Coupled with this is the unwillingness of some heads and their deputies to admit that a problem exists at all and often a virtual refusal to give backing or assistance to teachers in difficul- ties. The teacher who complains may be told that he should not have 'provoked a confrontation' with a child who has 'prob- lems at home' and that in any case he must be a bad teacher to be having such difficul- ties. Not surprisingly, in such circum- stances morale among teachers suffers badly. Adding to the chaos with a little anarchic violence of his own may relieve a teacher's feelings, but it is unlikely to be very helpful in the long run, if only because it might get him the sack.
Roger Whittaker
Karachi Grammar School, Post Box 7198, Saddar, Karachi-3, Pakistan
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