A huge amount of upset has been generated by the Council's plan to scrap middle schools and revert to the sort of two-tier system most members of the Who's Counting? generation grew up with - though, of course, without the selection procedure which allocated us to either grammar or secondary modern slots at the age of 11.

I have every sympathy with parents who are anxious about the effects of change on their children's education. I would certainly have felt similar concern if my own children had been affected. It was bad enough having to help them through daft 1970s experiments like New Maths and the Initial Teaching Alphabet.

But they coped. And no doubt the children of today will cope, even though they might not like the changes much at first.

All the talk of education, of larger classes and bigger schools, took me back to my own schools days.

Like most of you, I went to a primary school where there were never fewer than 32 pupils to a class. We sat in rows with one teacher at the front and had no classroom assistants to help any of us along. We learned our times tables by chanting them in chorus and our spelling by copying out countless times words that we got wrong.

When we were 11 (or ten in my case, because I was quite bright before the rot set in) we left our village schools and went off to bigger schools miles away - sometimes two bus rides away. Many of us felt lost and alone at first, and hated it. But gradually we got used to it.

We were still in classes of more than 30. And, as at the primary school, the lavs were outdoor ones at the bottom of the playground and bitterly cold in winter.

It was not an ideal set-up any more than the proposed new two-tier set-up will be ideal. But children are largely quite adaptable. Most of them will come to terms with the changes more easily than their parents fear.

And, unlike us, at least they'll have indoor lavs.

l Who's Counting? is shifting to Tuesdays and will have an expanded space to fill. I'll still be doing my bit, but in future there'll be more room for your views, too.

Let me know what you think about the issues facing the over-50s. What worries you? What makes you cross? Has the world changed for the worse in your lifetime? Are the bus services not what they used to be? Are children much more monstrous than we were? Have a good old grumble.

But don't forget the other side of the coin. More mature people now have far greater opportunities for fun and fulfilment than they used to as they live longer and healthier lives.

So if you have any views about the downs and ups of life in middle years and beyond that you want to share, please drop me a line at the T&A, Hall Ings, Bradford BD1 1JR or ring me on 01274 729511 (after 10am please, when the first-edition panic is over).

And even if you're under 50, please don't feel left out. If you have opinions about older people, or about the sort of world you would like to age into yourself, let me know.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.