Comfortable outrage
Sir: In Theodore Dalrymple, Melanie Phillips has found her perfect reviewer (Books, 12 October). They both share a comfortable state of outrage at the appalling condition of state education in many of our inner-city schools. This is complacently joined to an absolute refusal to think about any practical reforms which would amelio- rate the disastrous effects of the bureau- cratic instrumentalisation of child-centred theories of learning. These conservative whingers merely complement the liberal bien peasants whom they pretend to oppose.
Neither the whingers nor the Bien pen- sants will consider the relation between the experiences that contemporary children bring to school and the knowledge and skills that they must acquire at school to enjoy a full human existence as members of a secular democratic society. Both parties have a deep vested interest in maintaining a status quo which spares them the strenuous effort of thought.
Colin MacCabe
British Film Institute, 21 Stephen Street, London W1
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