Letters: Lessons learned

Please email your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Teachers are quite right to resist measures which would require them to report pupils for the views which they express in the classroom: education is about teaching kids to ask questions and debate ideas, not silencing them and subjecting them to production-line indoctrination.

The role of a teacher is to facilitate the intellectual and emotional growth of our children; if our educators now take on the additional role of thought-police then that will inevitably instil fear into the next generation - stifling imagination, quashing spirit and stamping out individuality - because they will be afraid to express opinions or even to ask questions.

Julian Self

Milton Keynes

Boxing, the beautiful, not bloody sport

John Rentoul (Voices, Wed 30th March) expresses the view that 'the audience that pays for boxing should have stopped watching the sport long ago'. As a sports fan I often feel a conflict of emotion when watching sports were the participants put themselves in grave danger, I am a fan of boxing, but find myself unable to watch MMA, such as the UFC, due to the fact that fighters continue to attack even when an opponent has been grounded. Likewise I am a fan of Formula 1 and motorsport in general, where we have seen tragic deaths such as those to Jules Bianchi and Henry Surtees, yet I cannot bring myself to watch the MANX TT where every year you know several riders are likely to be seriously injured. Ultimately though, the danger and the risk is part of why we tune in to watch these sports. Don't we want to watch the spectacular and marvel at the bravery and talent of these young athletes? Of course lessons can be learnt from any incident, and in the case of this weekend’s fight I believe the referee could have intervened earlier, but ultimately even if we weren't watching I believe boxers would want to fight, and racing drivers would feel the need to drive fast. It goes without saying that my thoughts are with Nick Blackwell and his family and I wish him a speedy recovery.

James Shepherd

Lincolnshire

Brexit

We could lose all of our steel works due to competition, and the lack of demand.Our major car firms are foreign owned, as are our Utilities. Some Banking Institutions, and many more major employers.

The question is, how on earth, could the UK trade outside of our membership of the European Union. Our closest neighbours?

Richard F. Grant

Hampshire