LETTER: Chablis socialists who are forced to choose between head and heart

From Mr John Crawley

Sir: I found your editorial on Harriet Harman pretty hard to swallow. Your argument that "each parent has a duty to do the best for their own child" is typical of the worst middle-class consumerist view of education. What about the society that her son is growing up in, perpetuated by this kind of schooling? On the logic of your argument, Ms Harman is a hypocrite for not sending her children to Eton because, if it is solely about getting ahead in the rat race and "purchasing" future access to a university, then, statistically, that's an even better bet for her child.

Grammar schools such as St Olave's are all about concern for the "bright" 10 per cent and let the rest go hang. The problem with our society is that there are many forms of intelligence we should value and nourish, but we choose to define and value just one, academic form, and heap the resources on that already privileged minority.

Yours etc,

John Crawley

Lichfield, Staffordshire

22 January