THE TEACHING profession needs to be modernised but the problem with David Blunkett’s version of modernisation is that it is too individualistic (“Cash for competence”, TES, July 24).
Pupils can only achieve well if they are motivated but motivation is a function of their overall orientation towards school. Keeping pupils committed in their weaker subjects is indirectly connected to their high achievements in others.
Helping a group of troubled pupils to be better adjusted in school may indirectly enable others to achieve more because it prevents unhappiness from spreading.
A teacher who achieves good results has not done this off his or her own bat. In a challenging school, their success is largely dependent on their colleagues’ capacity to make the whole school an educational community, or at the very least to keep the lid on!
Professor John Quicke, Division of Education, University of Sheffield, 388 Glossop Road, Sheffield.
