ALAN Graham (TESS, March 24) has always been at liberty to sacrifice as much of his summer holidays as he wishes, in order to deal with what he perceives as his inability to perform his job within his presently contracted hours.
It is, however, quite intolerable that he should advocate that
others be forced to make such a sacrifice - there are many teachers, myself included, who have always been able to fulfil their obligations entirely within their contracted hours and who would
take ill indeed to such a loss of their free time.
As for pupils being emotionally harmed by his absence from the schol for a day or two - does he really imagine himself to be that indispensable?
And as for Mr Graham’s touching faith in the efficacy of in-
service “training” - in 26 years
of teaching all that I “learnt” which is of any relevance to my teaching could be easily written on the back of a very small
postage stamp with a very wide-nibbed pen and with plenty of space to spare. (Anyway, such “training” is exclusively for the benefit of the employer, and
thus it is only right that it be carried out exclusively in the time of the employer.)
Rory Shand
Holburn Road
Aberdeen
