I have been reading the articles about raising the retirement age and there are arguments both for and against the idea. However, I could not believe the headline which read “I won’t have the energy at 64” (TES, June 27).
It is irresponsible for a professional newspaper to peddle such an ageist message. I have come late to teaching and those of us who worked in industry in the recession of the early 1980s well remember the all-too-frequent forced early retirements. The energetic people who felt they were put “on the scrap heap” too early with plenty of vitality and ideas still but with younger people rejecting them.
Come on TES, argue proper considerations about the proposal. In wider society the suggestion is that working lives will have to be extended to 70. I have reasons to want to carry on after 60 and, unless I am struck with illness, am confident of my ability to be lively, energetic and to make a valuable contribution to school life.
Sally Macaulay
55 Coates Way
Garston, Watford
Herts
