GORDONSTOUN
would be interested to know upon what evidence Mr. Endymion Wilkinson bases his asser- tion that Gordonstoun 'step by step breaks a boy's ties with the outside world—including those with his family.' As the parent of one son educated at Gordonstoun (and of a second son at another public school), I can only say that the various encounters I had, either with the Headmaster or any of the other masters, furnished ample proof of the exactly opposite view.
At my first interview with the, Headmaster, upon my asking when parents' visits were permitted, I was told that parents were urged to visit their sons as often as possible, since, in many cases, the fact of parents getting to know personally those in charge of their sons' education, and discussing their mutual problems, had proved the best means of overcoming in the boy's mind any latent idea of an inherent antipathy between home and school.
On another occasion, when writing to my son's housemaster about a personal problem, I expressed the hope that any suggestion I had made would not be interpreted as interference in a matter which was primarily the concern of the school. An answer by return of post assured me that all such suggestions from parents were more than welcome, for they had discovered that, without the participation and active co-operation of the parents, they could not achieve the best results.
Mr. Wilkinson appears to be shocked by the regulation which requires a new boy to 'discard his worldly clothes and put on the special uniform of the school.' Am I misinformed in believing this to he
the practice of most . other public schools—the requisite uniform in many cases being the relic of a previous era, almost absurdly unsuited to present- day activities?
As for 'the repressive nature of the school' giving rise to an 'abundant under-life,' one wonders whether the writer has any knowledge of the alleged 'under-life' that flourishes in other public schools, according to the numerous lurid accounts that have flooded the best-seller market for some years.
I can only add that, in the opinion of at least half a dozen Gordonstoun parents, including myself (all with abundant experience of other public schools), the implied picture of Gordonstoun as a kind of training ground for some future totalitarian regime, an 'elaborate power structure,' in which the innocent subjects are 'pressurised into conformity,' is com- pletely inapplicable—unfair and untrue.
LUCILLE CURZON
The White House, Hatfield Place, N6
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