EDUCATION AND THE HOME

When dealing with the problem of how best to lay the fined. Every teacher knows that problem children are the product of problem homes.

' Therefore a political party should be very. conscious of the fact that it.can influence education profoundly by its policy in fields other than education.

Especially is this true in relation to housing. If secondary modern schools, for example, are to be transformed into real secondary schools it will mean systematic homework for every boy and girl.

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Thus from the educational point of view the problem of domestic overcrowding has an urgency comparable to that of the building of schools and the training of teachers.

CONCLUSION ‘Learning to Live’ is not good enough. There are, in or near the Labour Party, a host of enthusiastic parents, teachers and educationists who from their knowledge and. experience would be prepared to support a much more imaginative and far-reaching statement of policy.

There are others who are open to persuasion. But the practice of being non-controversial will inspire no one, “Playing for safety by the minimum disturbance of things as they are is educationally and politically disastrous.

We have a tremendous opportunity to chart a new course for English education. If it is presented in a way that is both realistic and challenging the people of this country will endorse it.

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But such a claim cannot be made for ‘Learning to Live’: It must be drastically amended—better still, entirely rewritten —to match the temper of the times and present a truly socialist policy.

[ BOOKS ] PETER WORSLEY COMES UNDER FIRE FROM A DIE-HARD SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGIST PeTeR Worstey’s book ‘The Trumpet Shall Sound’ (MacGibbon and Kee, 1957, 25s.), which aroused a great deal of interest in Left-wing circles, is the subject of a lengthy attack in the current issue of the, British