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Teacher helped hundreds cope with life after school
• I WOULD like to add my voice to the eloquent and moving tributes to Jeffrey Gordon (Soap star leads tributes to teacher who inspired pupils, August 29).
I was privileged to work with Jeff at Holloway School from the mid-1970s until his retirement. Not only was he a brilliant teacher of sociology he was also, much more importantly, totally dedicated to the welfare and care of his students. He had a very clear grasp of the relationship between educational attainment and social background.
Jeff devoted much of his energy advising working class boys of all ethnicities about life and survival outside school. There would always be a queue of boys outside his room waiting for him to fix them up with part-time jobs.
It’s impossible to calculate how many were helped in this way, but the voices in the article would have found an echo in hundreds more. This commitment was his way of putting the principle of the comprehensive ideal into practice.
He was a stalwart of the school’s National Union of Teachers’ group, a personification of the tradition of solidarity. He was a proud and unapologetic socialist with a fierce antipathy to all forms of injustice and oppression. All of us who knew him will always remember him with affection and pride.
SHAUN DOHERTY
NUT rep Holloway School 1974-2001
• AS a reporter on the local newspaper, I covered some of Jeffrey Gordon’s sociology class talks at Holloway Boys School. I recall talks by the activist John Pilger and playwright David Edgar, as well as a lively session delivered by Joan Lestor, a former government minister.
I had been warned that the school had a bit of a reputation for being “rough” but I saw little evidence of it. For a start, there was never any mucking about at the back of the class. Speakers were always politely heard out and questions from the floor showed the boys had been paying attention.
The talks took place at a time when Thatcherism was like a runaway train and the utterances of those on the left assumed greater significance, hence the attendance of the press at the school. But, for the sake of balance, I suppose, Tories also found themselves standing before a group of expectant 14-year-old schoolboys.
One of them was a baroness and junior Conservative Party minister (her name escapes me), who spent a long time justifying the sell-off of BT on the grounds that it was a monopoly. However, after being pressed on this point more than once, she was forced to concede that the privatised BT would also be a monopoly.
As for Jeffrey Gordon, he was clearly in his element as master of ceremonies. He seemed to have a good rapport with his class and was invariably relaxed and jovial.
Afterwards, he would always speak affectionately of his pupils. I can see now he was one of those lucky people in life who really loved their job.
A COBBINAH|
Address supplied
• JEFFREY Gordon was a dynamic teacher and friend committed to helping others. At a time when government and local authorities were only beginning to encourage a more open and positive attitude to people with mental health problems, I was delighted to be invited by Jeffrey to give talks at Holloway Boys School.
It was amazing to see the warm relationship Jeffrey had with his students, who were friendly, relaxed and confident. In particular, the egalitarian atmosphere, with mutual respect between pupils and teacher, enabled lively debate.
Jeffrey Gordon’s devotion to his family extended to the welfare of often disadvantaged students. He made a great contribution in being so unstinting in the love and support he gave his students to such good effect. His legacy is the example he set for others to learn and follow from.
DORIS HOLLANDER
Consultant psychiatrist (retired)
Address supplied
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