LET me nail a particularly vicious rumour once and for all. Perish the thought that I could ever have suggested that “the rot set in for young people with the arrival of Dusty Springfield and flared trousers in the 1960‘s” (TES, October 29). The phrase I used in a 1995 speech to classic teachers - “that era of progressivism, flared jeans and Dusty Springfield” - was intended as a joke.
But it is not a phrase whose use I now recommend. In my experience it has the habit of boomeranging back, when one least expects it, through the columns of The TES.
Dr Nicholas Tate
Chief Executive
Qualifications and Curriculum
Authority
29 Bolton Street, London W1Y
