wonder whether you would permit me to raise a small
protest against one statement made by Sir Compton Mackenzie in his otherwise admirable discussion of salaries in the teaching professions.
Sir Compton declares that the task of the University teacher " is growing more arduous all the time on account of the ever-increasing number of State-aided students, many of whom nowadays have to be guided like schoolchildren." No one would of course deny that any increase in the number of students (or rather, their proportion to the total population) tends to mean an increase of those incapable of independent work; but to suggest, as Sir Compton seems to, that the intellectual quality of a student is determined by the source of his fee-payments seems to me unfair. Of course a student may be helped or hindered by his home background, but it is surely not • the rich home which gives advantages, so much as the one which is both educated and sympathetic, whatever its financial standing. Sir Compton himself is condemning the underpayment of " the best brains in the country "; surely he does not suggest that the child of the ill-paid scholar, who cannot afford to pay the university fees himself but must have recourse to State aid, is by that State aid marked down as one unfit for scholarly work ?—Yours faithfully,
CECILY CLARK
King's College, University of London
[Many letters have been received on this topic. It is hoped to publish a further selec- tion from them next week.—Editor, Spectator.]
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