24 OCTOBER 1947, Page 18

SIR,—For what it is worth I venture to offer an

opinion on the above discussion based upon the experience of thirty-five years spent in teaching. It is this. Classical masters make a richer, deeper, wider contribution to a sane and comprehensively cultural education than all the other masters put together. They kindle among their pupils, in school and out of school, an imaginative interest, a critical appreciation, a discerning judgement, a sensitive scale of values, to a ,degree unattained, as a rule, by any other masters. They do more to stimulate and to sustain a high intel- lectual standard effectively operating throughout a school than the teachers of other subjects, however gifted, seem able to create.—Yours, &c.,

Cleeve House, Goring-on-Thames. E. M. VENABLES.