ABSTRACT
‘Nothing is so dangerous as being too modern,’ warned Oscar Wilde. ‘One is apt to grow old fashioned quite suddenly.’ The use of classroom assistants, while not entirely modern, has certainly increased in recent years. They are used for various reasons including to provide for children with special educational needs. Although classroom assistants do not work as substitute whole-class teachers their use in the school as a whole tends to save money because the school may not employ as many teachers as they might if classroom assistants were not used. As long ago as 1967, the Plowden Report (Central Advisory Council for Education, 1967) suggested the recruitment of ‘teacher aides’ which raised similar concerns about teachers’ jobs.
