SIR,—I was sorry that Clifford Collins in his admirable article
last week repeated the old slander (which he calls a valid criticism) that teachers are 'narrow.' In twenty years I have met, I think, literally hundreds of teachers of all kinds, and have found them,. in general, to be men and women with an unusual range of interests—certainly wider than that of (say) doctors or business men.
The attitude of the public towards teachers, so well diagnosed by Clifford Collins, seems to be based on the highly fallacious assumption that teaching is a homogeneous profession. This assumption is regularly made by what are called 'educationists': indeed, the Ministry of Education and most local authorities seem unvni.ing to face the fact there is a very real difference between (for instance) the head teacher of Eton College and the head teacher
of the Gasworks Secondary Modern. I know that social snobbery is now taboo, but however besotted we may become over the extra- ordinary phrase 'Parity of Esteem,' we might as well face the fact that there is a vast differ- ence between the girl or boy who is just able to struggle through a two-year training course and the, man or woman who can achieve a double-first. Since our schools contain large numbers of both types, it is extremely rash to make any generalisation at all about 'teachers.' ,-Your faithfully, R. J. REES Bedstone School, Bucknell, Shropshire
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