Letter: Alas, poor children] We suffered too

Sir: I was rather appalled at John Patten's plan that all 14-year-olds should study Shakespeare. In common with many of my contemporaries, I had Shakespeare crammed down my throat at school, ending up cordially loathing his works. It took me nearly 20 years to give them another go and find that I enjoyed them. (It might have been longer still had I not been curious to see John Cleese in the BBC's The Taming of the Shrew.)

If a grammar school pupil who always enjoyed reading could react in this way, heaven help the teachers of the average child.

Yours,

JANET TINBERGEN

Oxford