Education: Your Views

Please send your letters to: Wendy Berliner, Editor, EDUCATION, `The Independent',

One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL (include a day-time phone number)

Fax letters to: 0171 293 2451; e-mail: educ@independent.co.uk

Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

Growing up gay

As the mother of a lesbian daughter and a gay son, I feel I must write to thank you for what I consider to be one of the best and most sensitive articles I have ever read. I am referring to the article entitled "The boys who behave dangerously" (EDUCATION, 8 July), by Debbie Epstein.

When our children are born, their sexual orientation is probably the last thing on our minds.

It was not until my son was about four years old that I noticed he was a little different from the other boys. Yes, he played with the girls. He also liked to play dressing up with them, and took more than a little interest in my high heels.

Like many boys, gay and heterosexual, he had no interest in sport and became the "sissy", then the "poofta", followed by the "queer b*****d", and finally "the freak"!

My little tomboy daughter was, just as Ms Epstein explains, accepted and well liked. She was the footballer in the family and joined a girls' team. She played on the green near our home with the local lads, and, while my 12-year-old son asked for a Care Bear for his birthday, she wanted a pair of goalie gloves.

My son was bullied. One teacher was good enough to notice, and I was asked to visit the school. The teacher tried: he knew the problem, but section 28 prevented him from even mentioning it.

What he did suggest was that the boy was his own worst enemy. He behaved differently - therefore, he was bullied. Then I was advised to allow him to see the educational psychologist - I did and the "verdict" was that there was nothing wrong with him.

Of course there wasn't, I knew there wasn't. I knew who had the problem, and it was not him. But still, the bullying persisted, and the school continued to believe it was his own fault.

Both my children are adults now, in their twenties, both in work and living in places of their own. They're a nice pair, not perfect, but they are a couple of assets to society. We're both proud of them, yet every time I hear they are visiting a club or a gay pub in the town I fear for them.

It's hard knowing there is a large section of society who hate your offspring. It reminds me of the days when they were teenagers and still at school, days when even other parents laughed at my son, and didn't want either of them to hang around with their "straight" youngsters.

How hard it can be listening to the homophobic remarks made by people at work and even the crowd I used to walk my dog with every morning. There are those who would not give my daughter the time of day, and would gladly murder my son, simply because he is "different".

For mothers like me, life hurts. It hurts because every time we hear a nasty remark about lesbian, gay or bisexual people, we know that not only are the fruits of our wombs despised, but there are those out there who would like to kill them.

Thank you Ms Epstein, your article was brilliant!

LINDA DEAKIN

Wolverhampton

Parents who have lesbian, gay or bisexual offspring, and would like to talk about it, can ring Parents' Friend on 01902 820497, or write to WVSC, 2-3 Bell Street, Wolverhampton WV1 3PR

Top marks for our sixth

I read with interest Ben Russell's piece "Are sixth forms on the way out?" (EDUCATION, 8 July). Let me add one figure to Ben Russell's "compare and contrast" table: independent school sixth form (150 students), 27.4 [A-level points score, vs. 18.6 for school sixth forms with 200+ pupils, the "highest" score].

Ben Russell says that colleges are 20% cheaper than schools, and gives the cost of education for a school sixth former as pounds 7,380 per year, and at the sixth form college as pounds 5,910 per year.

Here's another figure for the table: independent school, pounds 4,455.

At the Hulme Grammar School we have no problems at all in sustaining the quality, either of our academic education or of the wide range of extra curricular activities that we offer.

It is greatly to be regretted that there seems to be a move on the Government's part to make changes which will inevitably put sixth forms under threat. Oldham's education provision would be the poorer if the present variety of providers was not maintained.

T.J.TURVEY

Headmaster

Hulme Grammar School, Oldham

Give imaginations 100%

David Almond ("Leave time for imaginations", EDUCATION, 15 July) sounds very enthusiastic, but does he not see that the whole trouble is that children cannot "develop their imaginations and inspiration" in a nice, neat, prearranged slot within the confines of the national curriculum, the mere existence of which is the very cause of the death of their imagination and inspiration.

Let's free them from it for 100% of the time.

MARTINE ARCHER

Harrogate

Not such a `golden' hello

I am writing in response to the article "Applications up" (EDUCATION, 8 July), and its reference to "the pounds 5,000 `golden hello'" for maths and science [graduates to] teach.

The pounds 5,000 is split into two instalments, the first of which is given to students embarking on a maths/science PGCE. This "golden hello" is assessed as income when it comes to calculating claims for (previously existing) hardship funds available for all shortage subjects. It is thus not as "golden" as it might appear superficially, and some students may not actually benefit at all.

The second instalment is paid by county councils to those who immediately start teaching in state schools. This time the money is taxed - a case of the Government giving with one hand and taking away with the other. I have never heard of a "golden hello" in the private sector being taxed.

BRYONY GOODRIDGE

Tonbridge, Kent