It is fun when apparatchiks of the General Teaching Council tendency point the shotgun at their own feet and pull both barrels. (“Art of good conversation”, Letters, TES, June 16).
The attitude that the only way to improve our art is under the aegis of some pretentious acronym operating in a rigid framework taken from the file “granny; eggs” is ignorant and arrogant. In the real world teachers meet spontaneously, using what little free time the bungling bureaucrats have left to sort things out simply and practically, without the need for outside agencies, however well-meaning. That, I believe, was Mike Kent’s point (Friday magazine, June 2), and your correspondent, who defends the GTC, misses it completely.
Philip D Delnon 79 Broomfield Road Swanscombe
