Madam, - As a secondary teacher for the past 34 years I was encouraged by John Downes's interview with my former lecturer Dr Maeve Martin ("New Order on School Discipline", Education Today, March 15th) .
I was heartened also to read that the Task Force on Discipline includes many current teachers and one former teacher. Let us hope their endeavours prove positive for all the partners in education, not least pupils and teachers.
While I accept the tenor of most of what Dr Martin says I have some reservations about her contention that "much of the breakdown of civility that is current perhaps in society today is evidenced within the school setting". I suggest that prior to the breakdown of societal civility many schools were losing the struggle for classroom control.
Schools now operate largely to a children's and a teenagers' charter of rights - not least of which are those conferred by the Education Act, the Education Welfare Act and the Stay Safe Programme.The task force might usefully evaluate the latter and its effects on classroom management. Well-intentioned but poorly thought-out innovations ought to be reassessed and reappraised.
One thing is certain: if Irish teachers lose the fight for control in the classroom, Irish society will ultimately lose the battle for control on the streets.
Then we really will know about "a breakdown in civility". - Yours, etc.,
LARRY McGUINNESS, Rathfarnham Road, Dublin 14.