Letter: Schools old and new

Sir: David Blunkett and Chris Woodhead deserve more thanks than they will get for exploding the hypocrisy of elitist liberals who oppose standard-setting in school.

Progressive schools such as mine betrayed the futures of their working- class pupils. The few who did well, such as myself, came almost without exception from families who taught them to read, do sums and use the library at home. We had a personal literacy and numeracy hour with educationally confident parents.

In the pub aged 17, I argued with a teacher who believed that spelling shouldn't be taught - it was a form of "creativity".

So I went off to Cambridge and left many of my less literate friends to dross jobs and teenage pregnancy. I discovered when I got there that my views on education were unacceptable to those who had gone to Oxbridge with half their form. Roll on the true people's revolution.

Dr JACKIE CASSELL

Lewes, East Sussex