Mike Kent must have been bugging our staffroom (“Promising start across a minefield”, TES, January 9). He was right in all the points he raised.
When I began teaching in 1974, I was given a class, a room, equipment, advice on daily routines, and left to do my job. I did the best I could, tailoring the learning environment and teaching to my pupils.
Yes, I made mistakes, but I learned from them. My pupils progressed and enjoyed school. I did not need anyone setting me targets as I set myself the highest goals. No one is more self-critical than a teacher. Today, I still really enjoy face-to-face teaching and still try to be that creative person I was at the outset. But I wish I could do it unhampered by the micro-management and de-skilling put in place by government and its statistics-hungry “experts”.
Teachers today are monitored and hounded to a point where most have begun to feel that enough is enough. The new approach proposed to change the current overfull curriculum into a more creative and imaginative vehicle for learning is a step in the right direction to bring about a more enlightened era.
Julian Goldsmith, Year 6 teacher, Folkstone, Kent.