Peter Varley wrote: >As we lived on a council estate, I didn't do music at school - children >from the posher parts of the town did music, but we did woodwork instead. >This was particularly fortunate, as it meant I could decide for myself what >I liked. I didn't have to subscribe to the politically-correct theories >that every sort of music is as good as every other sort, and I didn't have >to pretend to like Bartok and Penderecki in order to pass exams. I lived on a council estate too and made a fatal mistake of failing the 11 plus despite (I now realise) being much brighter than most other children around. In my secondary modern we learned no music and no languages. They wasted our time with a total of 1day a week on PE and games and another day spent on woodwork, gardening etc. We did general science (not physics biology etc). So when it came to exams and I wanted to take physics O level I was in difficulty. Later I scraped a degree in maths. At that time I believe I was the third in the school's history to get a degree after 15 years from an annual intake of circa 100. That is a disgrace. If I had listened to classical music as a boy I'd have got beaten up. Perhaps these experiences and a sense of injustice have made me a bit more forthright that many people find comfortable. I said before that psychiatric treatment should come with Penderecki. Regards Bob Draper