Saturday Talking Point: Don't lose human touch

WE HAVE all met teachers who inspire us. The men and women who,laying aside text books, speak to us of events off-the-cuff,explaining, encouraging, taking us that step ahead of the syllabusthat opens up new horizons.

Mine were three old nuns in an enclosed order who left theircloisters only to vote and to be buried. But they taught me theright of women to make free choices, to be uncowed by men, to lookthe world in the face.

It was Mother Mary Dominic, a sweet-faced old mystic and dreamer,who explained man's right to work to feed his family. It was MotherMary Philip who, at the end of a lesson on the romantic poets, lentme her dog-eared copy of Wordsworth so I could readthe poetry shehad loved as a girl.

And it was Mother Mary Frances, whom I recognise in adulthood asearth-mother to the feminist movement, who warned me to beware ofwhat she called 'human respect'.

'It doesn't matter what others do,' she said from the depths ofher book-lined office we called The Cenacle. 'Whether you arepopular is beside the point. You have God in you and what He thinksmust be your sole concern.'

I can't imagine a teacher in today's educational hurly-burlyshowing that loving concern for a pupil. Nor, alas, can I imagine ateenager in today's ersatz society taking time to listen to oldladies.

That love of learning, of wanting to open young eyes to a freshworld, seems on the wane. Endless teachers complaining of theirpaperwork, their struggle to keep abreast with what amount toclerical distractions, make teaching appear a battle between theill-used in the staff room and the unwilling and uninterested in theclassroom.

And there is worse to come.

Within 15 years, says Alan Pritchard of Warwick University'sDepartment of Education, classrooms could become just 'learningspaces' in which pupils are taught by computers, perhaps not evenneeding to turn up at school.

Exchange of ideas

The children would receive their lessons from the Internet.Pupils in different schools, even in different countries, could turnon and receive the same learning programmes.

While Mr Pritchard says that teachers' roles won't vanish intoether, he owns their work will be changed forever.

What musn't be overlooked, though, is the role of conversation inteaching, that exchange of ideas that flow between teachers andpupils and, frequently straying from the point, unearth other ideasand new concepts.

A computer can't break off in the middle of a sentence toillustrate a lesson by recalling a personal experience. A computeris unsympathetic. A computer doesn't discuss the morals of historicactions, for instance.

Education must open out fresh fields, not produce computer-wizards without an original thought in their heads.