Victoria Neumark asks, in her Friday’s Child column about school furniture inappropriately designed for large primary children (TES, November 29), “How many adults would enjoy spending their working life crammed into seats where they could not comfortably move their elbows, knees or backsides?” And yet this is an exact description of the excruciating posture required at our governors’ meetings. I write with feeling.
“Do constrained children really learn better?” asks Ms Neumark. “Do constrained governors,” one might equally demand, “really govern better - or even as well as they might?” In a two-class first school there are just not enough adult chairs to accommodate all the gubernatorial bottoms; the tables, moreover, are too small for our knees.
This regular discomfort is yet another example of how those of us in education silently accept conditions which no self-respecting professional would countenance for a moment. What about government funding for adequate chairs and tables to enable governors to sit and work in reasonable comfort? This is, after all, a fundamental matter.
MICHAEL J SMITH 10 Hillview, North Pickenham, Swaffham, Norfolk
