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Inspiring teacher
• I WAS a pupil at Holloway School from 1968-73. Jeffrey Gordon was a wonderful teacher who profoundly inspired and moved me, helping me feel a little less alone in a grim, brutal and brutalising environment (‘Inspirational Mr Gordon made us feel valued’, November 21).
I remember our first lesson with him, when he spoke about Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis and the alienation of capitalist society. It was from him that I learnt of Marx’s Theory of Surplus Value.
While my parents were socialists (my father was in the SPGB), it was Jeffrey who introduced me to sociology, and through his presence and attitude encouraged me during a difficult, dark time in my life. I did not have individual contact with him. I just soaked up his positive energy from within the classroom.
I wish I had spoken to him. If I had known he was Jewish it could have helped me considerably. I was terrified of anyone in the school finding out I was Jewish (I had the name “Irvin” then as my mother was appropriately concerned to protect me from anti-Semitism). I went on to study sociology at the University of Leicester.
ISAAC PIZER
Derby
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