The Masters

In the boy's progress, reports will certainly have played their part; and masters might as well continue to write them with confidence. They should be informative rather than obvious; 'could do better' applies to everyone except possibly one who is born to be a king. The information may be strictly factual as on a report by a Latin master who wrote `He does not take the subject seriously', and who, on being told that the boy had given up Latin the previous term neatly crossed out the word `seriously'. Or the report might suggest real possibilities such as 'This boy should go far, and he ought to start at once'.

So it seems that reports are a necessary part of the educational process. It is no doubt an excellent thing that learned people report from time to time on how to train better teachers, and on what to do about raising the school leaving age. It is useful that teachers should report on one boy's lack of effort or another's alertness in class; if the reports are right and are acted upon, both boys will learn what they need.

The most recent official Report has already added lustre to the long history of York, for it bears the name of York University's ViceChancellor, Lord James. One authoritative writer has said : 'The James Report may well go down in history as the most important educational document since Robbins'; and that certainly means something, provided you know your Robbins. It is likely to influence the training of teachers, which is what it is about, but it could well be most important for the implications of these words in it: 'It is certainly alarming that such matters as the teaching of reading should sometimes appear to be neglected'.

With this chilly warning, the best report from a teacher to a parent could be the most trite of them all: 'satisfactory work and progress'. Because if such a report is to be believed, it means that amid the welter of projects and visits, and of teaching aids and machines that can mercifully be stilled by a power cut, the boy is learning to read intelligently, to write lucidly, and to respect factual information. He doesn't need much more.

The Editor wishes to thank the many contributors to 'The Peterite' and would welcome correspondence and articles of general interest from Peterites past and present.

We recently published the names of the School Governors, and there have been requests for those of the Masters. HEAD MASTER

Mr. P. D. R. Gardiner, MA., Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge. SECOND MASTER Mr. L. C. Le Tocq, T.D., M.A. (Oxon.), B.Sc., Econ. (Lond.), Exhibitioner of Exeter College, Oxford. CHAPLAIN