I wonder if the current debate on the school year is somewhat behind the times? With many in other sectors of employment questioning the current idea of work, particularly its destructive influence on family life, it is strange that those involved in shaping educational policies should propose packages involving longer, more structured hours, fewer holidays and less flexibility.
The current quest for truly integrated life styles is either ignored or misunderstood by people whose use of language seems to strangely reflect that of industry rather than that of the classroom.
As a consequence, teachers stand to lose one of the major benefits of their profession and be faced with the same holiday time childcare headaches as everyone else. Worse still, schools would be regarded as “plant” comparable to factories. This bears with it the implication that children are not so much “pupils” as “products”.
For the information of some, children can obtain just as much education on a three-week family holiday in France as they can through being processed.
JACQUI NELSON
68 Bank Lane Blackburn, Lancashire
