Fighting back
Sir: One can well appreciate that as Stuart. Maclure (14 March) moves into the far from enviable editorial chair of the Times Educa- tional Supplement he is bound to have to hedge his bets. Too overt a support for the Fight for Education 'Black Paper' could identify him most uncomfortably with what will predictably be described over the next six months as the educational `backlash.'
All the same, I hope we will soon find an educational journalist who will be able to address himself less circumspectly to the ques- tion which really matters in primary education. Are the children or are they not what used to be called in less callowly optimistic days 'securely grounded' in reading and writing? If they are not they are being culturally dis- advantaged. My postbag and a great many interviews with young parents suggest that the issue is at the very least a much more open one than is commonly allowed in Institutes of Education or the popular press.
T. E. B. Howarth High Master, St Paul's School, Lonsdale Road, Barnes, London SW13
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