THE EDITOR, Sir:

Si deH, true fac ya - en' a story.

I, in 1958 as woodwork teacher at the Kingston Senior School, was sent to a compulsory workshop in the teaching of English conducted by an education officer. She made a profound statement that teachers must not speak one word of Patois to their students. I strongly disagreed. She called me 'rude boy'. I explained that even before teachers' college, I learned in a Jamaica Local Teaching course that the first principle in teaching is to proceed from the known to the unknown - that you take people from where they are to where you want them to go.

Patois needed

A few years, later she went to the United States and obtained a master's degree in English and on returning, she summoned 'rude boy' to her office only to apologise for her foolish statement; she had taken a course in communication, which I also took later.

Shortly after that, I visited my old elementary school, where there was a young, progressive headmaster who invited me to greet the students. "Children, do you recognise this gentleman?" he asked. No reply. Then he yelled, "Picknies, unno know da man ya?" The reply came, "Yes sah. A Mass Stevin."

I am, etc.,

STEVE S. DYE

Mandeville