I WAS pleased to see the Mercury making the plight of some teachers a front-page issue on June 16. We hear a lot about student bullying, but very little about the difficulties that teachers face in today's schools. Of course, this is not new. I believe sc

I WAS pleased to see the Mercury making the plight of some teachers a front-page issue on June 16. We hear a lot about student bullying, but very little about the difficulties that teachers face in today's schools.Of course, this is not new. I believe school discipline started to go wrong in he 70s when we thought large comprehensive schools were the solution to social justice. When a North Somerset councillor on the education committee, I tried to get a special centre set up to deal with, and to help, children who had serious emotional and learning problems, with no success.This must be the answer: a special centre with specialist staff, and leave main schoolteachers in a learning, stress-free situation. I costed our special education budget at the time, and found several millions of pounds in savings with our own in-county provision.JOHN CARTER - Addicott Road, Weston