If Sir David Melville did indeed say that in the past we thought teachers owned information and pushed it to learners, he deserves to be given some extra homework (“FE staff urged to learn from the Facebook age”, December 4).

As chairman of Lifelong Learning UK, he must be aware that adult educators have a higher calling than other forms of education. They have their very own guru: Paulo Freire.

He certainly didn’t claim to know it all and constantly reiterated that teaching does not involve one person acting on another but rather people working with each other.

Remember his Rumsfeld-esque quote: “The educator is not he who knows, but he who knows how little he knows, and because of this seeks to know more, together with the educatee, who in turn knows that starting from his little knowledge he can come to know more.”

Tut, tut, Sir David.

David E Norris, Adult education lecturer, Bury Adult Education Centre.