Could we learn from Chinese teaching methods?

I FELT ashamed to be British after watching the TV programme about the school where Chinese teachers tried to teach our youngsters. This was supposed to be one of our better schools. When discussing the discipline of Chinese pupils, the headmaster cynically used the word ‘conditioned’ as if to implicate their Communist background. When I was educated in the late Forties and Fifties we were disciplined and we had teachers who commanded and got respect. We were also eager to learn. What a pity this headmaster did not inquire how to do it.

R. HOUGHTON, address supplied. OF COURSE the ‘Chinese teachers’ experiment didn’t work. When children — especially teenagers — have been brought up under one system, you can’t expect them to suddenly embrace a new culture. It’s why those TV programmes getting people to ‘live like Victorians or Tudors’ do not work. It is not only the different systems, but a completely different mindset and culture, and it can’t be altered in the space of a few weeks. This venture only proves that experiments like this don’t work.

ROBIN CROSS, Maidstone, Kent. THE story of the Chinese teachers working in an English school left me in despair. In this apparently wonderful school was there no one in authority to suggest to the students that they might show a measure of courtesy towards the visitors? I see their behaviour as yet a further disintegration of this sick society. It seemed to be applauded when children behaved badly. There was a smug remark about respect. I have lost respect for the school’s head teacher and that supposedly wonderful school. Does no one realise what an effect this episode will have upon Chinese opinion? One day we will regret those children’s bad behaviour.

ALEX FERGUSON, Milton Keynes, Bucks.