Eight years ago, in the course of doing some research into literacy teaching in London, I visited many primary schools. One thing that struck me — and I didn’t of course mention it in the pamphlet I wrote on the subject — was how many primary school teachers were severely obese. One isn’t supposed even to notice it. But it’s been worrying me ever since. Obesity inevitably involves lower energy levels, less mobility, reduced staying power — all weaknesses which, however talented a teacher may be, are likely to impair his or her ability to cope with young children. What’s more, teachers are role models. I feel great sympathy for obese people, but I would be troubled if my young child were being taught by a seriously obese teacher. Now the papers are full of statistics showing that record numbers of 11-year-olds are severely obese. I have no idea whether there is any correlation in obesity between teachers and their primary school pupils, and in any case it would be impossible to ascertain. But the whole subject seems to me to be cause for concern.
I wonder whether any #MeToo supporters watched the first episode of Still Open All Hours (series five) now showing on BBC1 on Sundays. I came upon it by chance and was astonished that anything so charmingly old-fashioned (starring David Jason of Inspector Frost fame, 78) was still being made. The plot revolves around three men — one youngish, one elderly, the third a middle-aged immigrant — who have one thing in common: they are all terrified of their domineering wives. ‘She who must be obeyed.’ Downtrodden husbands and despotic wives have, of course, been the staple of domestic comedies (and occasionally tragedies) for centuries, and everyone knows one or two such couples.
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