I READ with great interest Michael Short's article on October 19. I wonder how many readers remember Harry Scott at Darwen Grammar School?

I was there in the 1950s and remember the dining room would be pandemonium when certain teachers were on dinner duty.

Silently and mysteriously, Harry Scott, senior master, would appear.

He would stand near the door, facing the pandemonium, one hand in his waistcoat pocket, and slowly look round the room.

He said nothing. Within seconds the room was silent, everybody sitting and quietly eating. He then left -- and the pandemonium did not return. How did he do that?

The point is that he had the respect of just about every pupil in the school and I have no recollection of him ever punishing anyone -- physically or in any other way -- and the thought that he might, or even could, never entered my head. It wasn't necessary, you just behaved when Harry Scott was around. That was the way it was.

Where is the respect today? Trendy ideas, listening to do-gooders, human rights, strikes, working to rule, 'stress' -- all these have helped destroy it. It permeates our whole society and society is all the worse for it.

Bringing back the cane would not be easy, but it's not the answer. The answer is bringing back respect, and that's much more difficult.

DAVID AINSWORTH, Earnsdale Road, Darwen.