What price security?

Whenever you look at the condition of teachers, from whatever angle, you very soon begin to hear about the security of the job. Traditionally, it has been the lure of security that made a teaching career the ambition of so many children from lower middle and skilled working class families with gaunt memories of between‐the‐wars depression. Security is one of the root causes, too, of teachers' recurring plight in the Burnham Committee; behind every management offer lies the implication that the figures may not amount to much, but at least they're assured. And because the sort of people who go for career security are not usually protesters, workers to rule or bearers of banners, it has taken a century of shabby treatment to screw the NUT up to its present pitch of militancy.