[Mr. E English]

I agree with you Sue, there needs to be a balance between the entertainment factor and the learning - although personally I've always found learning to be very entertaining in itself.

But as teachers I think it's important we bring humour and interest into our teaching. All too often in the teacher training I have attended this 'human' side of our job is negated. Certainly it's an intangible quality and to that end difficult to assess or measure but then we're not dealing with balance sheets, we're not accountants.

The other side of this is the 'stage act' teachers who do nothing but entertain, like you I've seen plenty in observed lessons. It's always been my assumption that the acting is a cover for not actually knowing how to teach - teaching is so much easier than acting.