Respect is taught in state schools too, Sir!
SHOULD comprehensive schools seek further to emulate their so-called ‘betters’, the grammar schools, by having their students refer to teachers as ‘Sir’ or ‘Miss’ (Mail)? once again, i’m annoyed at the way in which comprehensive schools are scrutinised by a government whose members are mostly from private education backgrounds. Why should i, a pupil at a successful and hard-working comprehensive, be belittled by those who don’t really know what the state system is actually like? i certainly don’t know anyone at my school who refers to a teacher as ‘mate’ — an expression i find quite offensive because, believe it or not, comprehensive pupils do have some sense over how you should address your elders. nothing other than ‘Sir’ or ‘Miss’ is considered acceptable at my school. And we always stand up whenever the headmaster or an assistant headteacher enters the room. Why should comprehensives always be compared to grammars? if it truly cared about the standard of teaching and the happiness of the pupils, the government would stop automatically thinking about how much ‘better’ grammars are supposed to be in comparison with comprehensives. At the end of the day, schools should strive to be the very best they possibly can be — regardless of their status.
CHLOE BREWSTER, Grantham, Lincs. i WAS interested to read that Sir Michael Wilshaw, chief inspector of schools, has advocated that comprehensives should adopt a ‘grammar school’ ethos with pupils referring to their teachers as ‘Miss’ or ‘Sir’. When i attended Blandford grammar School, we were told on our first day that all teachers were to be treated with respect and called by their full name ‘Miss Dakin’, ‘Mr Hughes’, etc. We stood when any teacher entered the room; this respect wasn’t reserved just for the headmaster. We respected our teachers and they respected us and in such an atmosphere we received a good all-round education. We also learned to respect all the people with whom we would come into contact in future years.
JOAN WOODGATE, West Hanningfield, Essex.