How refreshing to read the heretical article “Detention: it’s not trendy but it works” (TESpro, 2 December). I have suffered for years listening to the whining and whingeing of the put-children-on-a-pedestal brigade, too many of whom have managed to get into positions of influence in education.

I have had staffroom arguments about children writing lines and received pitying, even hostile, looks when I said that sometimes pupils need to experience some level of discomfort as a consequence of their misdemeanours. The author of the piece, Tom Bennett, needs to be headhunted and appointed as head of Ofsted and minister for education forthwith.

Tom Trust, Cornwall.