Education Quandary

'Education isn't all bad news. What are the best memories you and your readers have of the past year?'

Hilary's advice

No, it isn't all bad. In fact, there's such a gulf between daily life in good schools and colleges and the dire news of plunging league-table results and illiterate school-leavers that it is sometimes hard to understand how the two co-exist.

For me, there were many highlights in a year of education reporting. One was sitting in an East Sussex primary school watching the teaching assistants work painstakingly with a handful of troubled pupils. Another was listening to a high-tempo sixth-form philosophy lesson at a Devon comprehensive school, where young brains fizzed as they grappled with difficult ideas about mind-body duality. Yet another was visiting a school outside New York that was turning disaffected ghetto children into model students and doing it with verve, humour and warmth.

On a personal level, there was the pleasure of attending one of Nottingham University's slick graduation ceremonies to applaud a daughter who had enjoyed three productive years there, and seeing the springing confidence of a university that feels it is at the top of its game.

But above all, there was the joy of listening, in Kenya, to the sensational choir of St Elizabeth's School in Mukuru, Nairobi. Many of these children were orphaned, hungry and wearing uniforms in holes, yet their exquisite, note-perfect performance on a dusty platform next to their corrugated iron classrooms symbolised the potential that all children have.

It was impossible to listen to their singing without feeling moved by their talent and spirit, and frustrated and angry that the world isn't a better place for them to grow up in.

Readers' advice

My best memory this year is from the spring, when all the boys in my Year Two class ignored their toys one week to write poetry during playtime. They helped each other to make up different styles of poems their favourites being acrostics of their friends' names. Who says no one teaches poetry any more?
Caroline Picking, Essex

My memory is of a 10-year-old special needs child in my class putting together a four-piece jigsaw after five years of trying.
Alice Matthews, Clackmannanshire

My memory of the year has to be the day my son left school for good his school was rubbish.
Joanne Wilson, Isle of Man

Finally qualifying as a counsellor! This has been my ambition all my adult life, but family problems meant that I had to keep putting things on hold, and it has taken seven years. All that time, my tutors and mentors have been patient and understanding. I had never set foot in a further education college until I started this course. Now I think they are brilliant!
Rosalind Murray, Kent

It wasn't this year, but I can remember with great satisfaction reading for enjoyment for the first time in my life in my teens. Those books Kes, The Outsiders and Wuthering Heights hold a special place in my heart, as does the teacher who introduced them to me.
Jane George, Birmingham

Next week's quandary

Dear Hilary,

My daughter, who is 14, always listens to music on her iPod while she works, and she has her mobile phone by her so that she can answer texts as they come in. She gets good marks, so she knows that we can't complain, but I am sure that she cannot be concentrating fully when she is so distracted. Am I right to be worried?

Send your letters or quandaries to Hilary Wilce, to arrive no later than Monday 17 December, to 'The Independent', Education Desk, Independent House, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS; or fax 020-7005 2143; or email h.wilce@btinternet.com. Please include your postal address. Readers whose letters are printed will receive a Collins Paperback English Dictionary 5th Edition