Letter: Schools defended

Sir: Inured as I am (like most teachers) to constant criticism, I was incensed by the content and tone of Bidisha's article, "The beasts of the blackboard jungle" (Review, 27 August). On the basis of her own private education this young woman makes a series of ill-founded, offensive and inaccurate statements which serve to condemn almost every school in this country as uncaring and brutal.

She tells us that "the vast majority of schools... are run like high security prisons", that "all that ultimately matters to headteachers are the pass-fail figures", that "there is no attempt to incorporate... student respect into school life", that "even bullying... is brushed aside", and that, in short, "teachers hate kids".

As she would know had she passed time in any average state school, counselling, anti-bullying policy and practice, systems to uphold respect for students and pastoral care are integral aspects of school management. Most teachers are committed to these principles and, even if they weren't, the unrelenting scrutiny to which we are exposed ensures their implementation. Headteachers, and indeed all teachers, have to prioritise exam results but to infer from this that they don't care about pupils as individuals is wilful and perverse.

Most teachers in most schools on most days accept a gamut of treatment which, in any other circumstances, would be entirely unacceptable. This ranges from deliberate abuse to unconscious bad manners to casual indifference. Most do so with good grace and good humour, not for the financial rewards or enviable status conferred by the profession but because they enjoy the warmth, the response and the humour which young people show in measures equal to their defects.

Bidisha's article may reflect her own unhappy education and the failings of the private sector. To parade her ignorance of the state system (imperfect as it is) and to present this as if it were reasonable analysis is inexcusable.

GILLIAN BARGERY

St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex