LETTER: It’s time to ‘save the children’

I watched from my kitchen window the fire at Millais unfold, at first I thought it might be a chimney fire, or a house on fire, but no, I could clearly see the amount of grey and black smoke billowing across Depot Road, luckily it missed Danehurst Crescent, so all I could think of was, it was sailing over Depot Road allotments, where hopefully the smoke could not affect too many people.

I hoped and prayed that my granddaughter was not at school as I knew she, her sister, aunty and cousin were all down with sinusitis, so found out quickly that she was not there.

I then heard, was it the next day, that a 12 year old girl had been killed by a falling wall at a school in Glasgow, how sad was that? I’d previously read in the WSCT that Victory Road Infant School had been vandalised, plus graffiti everywhere!

What is going on? All I can get from sad stories like these is that schools are past their sell-by-date.

For the safety of pupils I think it’s about time schooling went online as is happening in the USA.

Parents would get more quality time with their children, no more expensive uniforms to buy, no more expensive outings to pay for or equipment.

It would get the traffic off the roads, good for everyone and the planet; billions would be saved on no school buildings to upkeep, plus electricity, gas, water, how much of all that is wasted everyday?

None of which is good for the pupil or the planet, the pupils are the ones who will be around long since their grandparents and parents are no longer walking the earth.

There would be no bullying, either from children or teachers, no ‘peer pressure’, how sad is that!

Pupils would get more fresh air on a day to day basis.

I could read before I went to school, I knew my letters and numbers and I could knit simple dolls clothes in garter stitch. Who taught me? My mother, and I was one of five children.

No nursery schools then and I was five years and four months before I went to school.

Whenever it snowed we always prayed it would reach up to the bedroom windowsills so we couldn’t possibly get to school, and it snowed a lot in those days.

Both my daughters spent two mornings a week for two terms just before they started school at a nursery school and they both told me when they were grown-up they hated every minute of it and at the time wondered why I sent them there, and neither of them liked school either.

So it’s time to ‘save the children’ - put schools online, the children will love it.

P.S. I myself do not use a computer, laptop, mobile phone, iPhone, iPad, have I missed any out?, but my children and grandchildren do.

R.J. SMITHERS (Mrs)

Comptons Lane, Horsham