THE FORGOTTEN PARENT
SIR,—Mr. Roger Clarke's article contains so many near truths, and so many glimpses of the obvious dressed up as profundities (e.g., " compul- sory education involves...compulsion") that it is difficult to know where to begin cutting a path to truth through the jungle of tangled half truths.
Take first the antagonism between parents and teachers, and the ques- tion of compulsion. It must not be forgotten that the vast majority of families in this country live in conditions of social insecurity, on incomes little, if at all, above the necessary minimum, and the cost of maintaining a growing family is an ever-presert strain. If it were not for the Elemen- tary Education Act, working-class boys and girls of ten and upwards would be bringing home much-needed shillings every week. The Act compels the parents to keep children at school until they are fourteen, and this inevitably creates a feeling of bitter resentment, which discharges itself on the obvious scapegoat—the teacher. It is noteworthy that no such antagonism is to be found between the staffs of secondary and public schools and the parents, who can afford (or who are willing to make sacri- fices) to send their children to such schools.
If, therefore, working-class parents were consulted, as Mr. Clarke suggests, about educational reforms, naturally their attitude would not be favourable. On any day of the week I can produce parents' notes, ex- plaining their children's absences. " I had no one to do the house work while I was ill." " Baby was ill, and I needed help:" " I wanted someone to go to market." " His boots were not good enough, and I had to go out to buy some more." Give these parents adequate wages and leisure, and their attitude to School will fall into line with that of the middle- and upper-class families. The same causes operate to produce the " jealousy of teachers' long holidays, high pay (!) and airs of superiority " Mr. Clarke says " Give all these things, and the need for compulsory education disappears." I say " Give all these things, and parents' re- sistance to education will disappear. Give decent houses and gardens and leisure, and Youth Centres will be welcomed."
Finally, I should like to point out that to quote a quite passable definition of Youth Movement work, and then calmly to dismiss it as obviously vile because it happens to be German is on a par with the banning of German music during the last war.—Yours truly, F. E. MARTIN. Billericay Youth Centre, Senior School, Billericay.
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