31 OCTOBER 1987, Page 29

Good indoctrination

Sir: I obviously misunderstood the state- ment quoted by Mr Mosley (Letters, 17 October) that in Nicaragua 'education is now indistinguishable from indoctri- nation'. I thought that he meant indoc- trination in that economic bogy Marxism. The free education books from which he quotes contain no hint of Marxism judging from his own choice of quotations, and I certainly won't dispute that there is a form of indoctrination — the indoctrination in patriotism during a war waged against terrorist members of Somoza's National Guard, mercenaries paid under the table by the United States and conscripts kid- napped from villages near the Honduran border.

I remember as a boy of 11 being indoc- trinated by posters of Lord Kitchener pointing his finger at me from the hoard- ings and apparently saying, 'England has need of You.'

I hope at least that Mr Mosley will agree with me that in time of war an appeal to children to help, as he quotes, to look after their teaching materials and economise on water and electricity (no word of Marx!) is an acceptable form of indoctrination. Grahame Greene

Antibes