School reports

I remember reading my school reports - they'd arrive a few days after the end of term. A small squat folder with slips of paper, one for each subject. I remember - even now - the handwriting: a small crabbed script (DLE), stammering bursts of Pentel (RJ), a florid hand (JF), a self-conscious Gill-inspired italic (CC). The Maths and Science teachers tended to type - but there were still their signatures. The point is the reports had character - both in the sense of letter form and personality. Judging by recent meetings and the unthinking promotion of computers in education, such pleasures will be denied future generations. School reports will have all the individuality of a sales receipt for a fridge - read online, screen fodder, download & print. Credit/ debit. And to raise an objection, to air an opinion to the contrary is to risk being labelled a dinosaur, a Luddite, a voice against Progress.

Progress? The vulgarisation of education gathers pace.