I was a teacher-training student living in Chiswick, London, in 1970 and we were the first people to buy up one of the cottages near Strand on the Green primary school. The start of “gentrification” of the area. Families at the other end of our road had been moved out during, or shortly after, the war from the East End of London and were working in a local factory. They were totally confused by the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA), were keen to help their children with school but couldn’t read it themselves and were distressed by the system and lack of understanding from the school (The radical 1960s schools experiment that created a whole new alphabet – and left thousands of children unable to spell, 6 July). They hadn’t the money to buy the special extra reading books, which could have been used at home.
ITA was a stupid experiment that bore no relation to people’s lives and, as your article underlined, had many negative long-term consequences for those children. Children learn to read in a myriad of different ways (reading the print on the breakfast cereal packets, for example) and ITA deprived many children from using the real-world experience.
Harriet Gibson
Wezembeek-Oppem, Belgium
