LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Education and Initiative
Snt,—Mr. Philip Lewis, in his article Industry and the Public Schools, asks why the modern State secondary schools no longer seem to pro- duce boys so willing to take risks and aspire to leadership as they did in the old days when these schools had a fairly large proportion of fee- paying pupils, and why industry now looks more to the public schools for potential managers.
May I suggest a reason that has nothing to do with the education provided by the schools, but much with the home background of the boys ? When you have come from a poor home, and during your early years have been constantly aware of perhaps slightly sordid conditions, lack of privacy and the absence of the small luxuries that money buys, you tend to value economic security above all things. if you have been uncomfortably off and living in one of the poorer streets, there is a very good reason why, when it comes to a career, you are determined to insure against a return to insecurity. On the other hand, if as a boy you have had a reasonably comfortable home background, you are more willing to take the risk of insecurity because you have had no personal experience of what the loss of the gamble means to your family.
I have been connected with further education, and I have noticed that, however good the education provided by the schools, the moods and moral attitudes inculcated by the home background of the student provides a far more potent influence than the hours spent in the class- rooms when it comes to basic decisions.—Yours faithfully,
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