I was baffled by Stuart Waiton’s article, “It’s teachers who deserve back-up” (TESS, October 26). He claims to “hate looking back and finding a ‘golden age’ which clearly never existed”, and then appears to do just that.
He maintains that, in the good old days when faced with a child’s complaint about school, parents always sided with the teachers and “were right to do so”. Nowadays, he laments, parents are more inclined to back their child. Forgive me if I state the bleeding obvious, but shouldn’t parents support their children’s complaints if they feel they have merit, support the teachers if they feel they don’t, and aim to exercise the wisdom to know the difference?
Despite Mr Waiton’s belligerent stereo-type, I have found the majority of parents are good at striking this sort of balance.
John Devine, depute head, Blairgowrie High.
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