Letter: The arts in schools

Sir: I found Clive Linke's letter (14 September) ringing bells with me, educated in an excellent grammar school, but three decades teacher in a comprehensive and convinced therefrom of the latter system's superiority as a channel of true education.

We are indeed swiftly losing education's central features of encouraging individuality and creativity. Now self-employed, I teach music full time in this country once internationally renowned for its young musicians.

I am fully booked thanks to the emphasis of the national curriculum on conveying facts at the expense of creativity.

The arts in school are increasingly becoming a second rate reflection of their true glory, reserved for pupils who have to work outside the time-tabled curriculum and whose parents can afford to pay.

ROGER GARRATT

Kibworth Beauchamp,

Leicestershire