Lazy generalization

New Internationalist, June, 2004 by Adam Sutcliffe

I have to express my dismay about the sweeping generalization cast upon the teaching profession by Siegrun Maybole (Letters, NI 366). I am a teacher and have never told a pupil that they were 'lazy, ignorant, stupid etc' and neither would the vast majority of my colleagues.

We work hard at a job many people do not care to do yet everybody has an opinion about. It is sometimes a thankless task when government officials decide to poke about in something they rarely know anything about.

In accusing teachers of being the main barrier to learning you are criticizing a worldwide profession whose intentions are to encourage everyone to achieve all that they are capable of.

Adam Sutcliffe Shetland, Scotland