Hey teacher – leave them kids alone!

MERVYN Edwards makes some good points in his letter with the self-explanatory heading (“Are we really so much better than in 1970s?”, Opinion, November 15).

They do indeed still exist, but Mervyn would surely admit that attitudes on those issues have improved enormously since the 1970s.

There are now laws to deal with sexism, homophobia and racism, although I concede that they cannot compel people how to think. Maybe next year?

Mervyn is correct in his list of today’s wrong-doings that would shock society of the 1970s. I would have added two more. Knife crime for one.

Then there is the infiltration of the Counter Enlightenment (wokery) throughout our key institutions. But which one to tackle first? The police? The courts? The civil service? The NHS? I think education, because young, impressionable minds are involved.

An education system that is ideologically driven is inherently averse to diverse opinion and is therefore unfit for purpose. In British schools and universities, to rebut what you consider a bad idea or an absurdity carries a very significant risk.

Truth or propositions in schools, like in industry, MUST be validated by demonstrable evidence, not “lived experience” or pseudoscience, otherwise they are not entitled to demand compliance.

It was the late 1970s when Pink Floyd’s hit, Another Brick In The The Wall, was issued. But the cry “Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!” is, in my view, more valid today than it’s ever been.

Lee Knowles

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