REGARDING your latest blast from the past in last week's Citizen Smith column, I was wondering if there was such a thing as selective truth after examining your arguments.

I am now starting to believe it is not just the radio which broadcasts Golden Oldie time and wallows in badly remembered nostalgia.

As for holding intellectual debate on the subjects you claim you are qualified in, if these arguments are an example of them 'I will go to the foot of our stairs' to coin a Lancashire saying.

Teachers will testify to the fact that lot of their time is spent filling in forms and paper pushing rather than at the blackboard - this is where children are being let down.

When teachers are trusted and believed in and allowed to concentrate on what they have been trained for, excellence in education will become more than an empty platitude.

Only then will standards rise in line with any other country.

Duncan McVie,

Robin Bank Road,

Darwen

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.