When you consider how few hours of teacher/pupil contact time there actually are

I don't think you can get away with this excuse, mav. Contact hours overall are likely to be in the order of twenty-two to twenty-six, I think? and every teacher is in contact with pupils for a similar amount of time. It is the cumulative effect that counts, and it is necessary that all of the teachers should be exposing the brats to the civilizing effect of good, well constructed English. If any one of them is doing otherwise, then at the least there will be a tendency to confuse the recipients if not to corrupt them (linguistically, that is). You have a share of the corporate responsibility, therefore. Which is not to absolve the other people on your list from their responsibility, of course. But I do feel that teachers, above all others, should bear a heavy load of responsibility for "the quality of the product", as educationists (ugh!! - another nasty word) would put it, damn them.

I write the above as a fellow teacher - although, "No teacher I of children or af lesser fry / No teacher I of Teachers - no, not I / For me, the further aim, the longer reach: / I teach men how to teach men how to teach!


(apologies for the sexist nature of the doggerel - but I couldn't work out how to turn it into bitcherel )