Paul, I agree that teachers, like social workers, scientists and many other
vital groups of any decent society are maligned unfairly. I think it's just
this snow thing really. I have given it some more thought and the only
possible reason I can come up with is that many teachers don't live locally
to their school anymore. Clearly some would be delayed and perhaps this
would lead to insufficient numbers to manage the students. Generally though,
some of the feeble excuses I have heard first hand from headteachers like
"the toilets might freeze" do not do justice to the education profession.

Dave