Letter: No morals, please

Sir: What a strange view of human development is held by church leaders ("Church hits at `immoral' curriculum", 2 July). Surely it's obvious that moral values develop naturally through observation and experience. To attempt to "teach" them would be absurd and in any case self-defeating, since nothing is more certain to turn a teenager one way than an instruction to turn the other.

Moreover, the idea that one generation should try and forcibly pass on its moral values to the next is not only absurd but dangerous. If applied in the past we'd still be tugging our forelocks to the gentry and burning witches.

I pay my taxes to educate the young in practical skills and factual knowledge (including knowledge of current law, right or wrong), and I advise the Government to ignore any bleating from the God squad for anything that deviates from this.

RICHARD GUISE

Draycott, Derbyshire