Any teacher that uses the word "Stupid" to a child needs a big kick up the arse and sent packing.

Nobody is stupid. Some people need different ways of being taught. That is a skill good teachers have.

Some people can sit in front of a computer and learn lessons on the websites or CD/DVD's

Others need a teacher to be there to give them hands on help, when they do not understand something.

The skill of a teacher, is to understand the person and explain things in a way that the person understands. My daughter becuase of her disability learns best when a new subject is introduced with visual aids and very basic ways of putting that over. I used to call that "getting down to the level of the person you are teaching".

Far too often, poor teachers talk over the heads of some people. Sometimes I swear blind that is done on purpose to try and hide their inabilties to teach. They basically and I think deliberately make the person being taught feel stupid, becuase they do not understand. The person then feels too stupid to ask questions and consequently doesn't learn.

In my life I have seen many very good teachers, not just in the school environment who have the gift for teaching, that paperwork and sticking to lesson plan will never beat. Oh just in case, I also have the D32/D33 assessors award (which is probably different now).

Two people who were not teaching in a school environment spring to mind in terms of having the gift to work and teach with children and fortunately they are not restricted by all the unecessary paperwork.

They didn't know I was assessing them at the time, I just did it on the spur of the moment as I saw them working with children.

Both of these will be known by Lincolnshire folkies.

The first is a very talented young man who is a folkie through and through and called Liam Robinson. I watched him as he did a party specially for my autistic daughter. There were about 20 children there. Within a minute he had the children listening intently to every word he spoke and every thing that he was showing and teaching to them. I haven't seen that sort of talent in many people. He is so good, I get him to go to a special need school every so often. They think he is brillant.

The other person teaches singing for a child choir which my daughter went to. I was invited to stay for the first evening to make sure things would be Ok for my daughter. This lady is called Sue Heron, who plays in a Ceildh Band called the Little Band. The way she was teaching these children and including them all was nothing short of inspirational.

They would be excellent role models to show how to engage and teach to young people.