indicative of things to come as we move to drastically change the school system. This newspaper was not totally in favour of the proposed changes but they were agreed upon, they seem to have been widely supported as best for Bermuda by teachers and they are now taking place, like it or not.

Thus it seems strange to us that teachers and the teachers' unions have entered the row over Northlands acting principal Mr. Warren Jones. Teachers should be among the first to understand that changes which they supported will not come without some unhappiness. Let us hasten to say that we have no doubt that Mr. Warren Jones has done a good job. He has certainly pleased his peers, the parents and his students. He certainly has a future in education.

However there is a basic issue involved here. Northlands Secondary School is set to become a middle school in the new education scheme and the important factor here is that it will need a trained middle school principal. If the new school system is to succeed, then changes in staff will have to be made to suit the new format. It seems clear that Mrs. Carol Bassett, presently principal at Somerset Primary School, has prepared for the future and has undertaken training overseas toward her new post. Bermuda has no middle schools at present and if our new middle school concept is to work, then it needs training from overseas.

As we understand the new education system, it is intended to prevent racial and class segregation in Bermuda. It is designed to stop people, mainly young black men, from "falling through the cracks''. This rescue operation will happen mainly at the middle school level where it is hoped people will be motivated to go on to better things rather than to become discouraged and drop out to become "wall sitters''.

Parents at Northlands have been unhappy for one reason and another about changes. When you totally revise any public system, there will be complaints at every level of change because people dislike change. There will also be natural sympathy for those people who are dislodged in the process. Because of that Government will have to be careful to explain the education changes as they go along. In the case of Mr. Jones, we think that, as usual, Government did no public relations.

Parents at Northlands, kept in the dark, may have jumped on the issue of Mr.

Jones as a way to express their general discontent.

As for the union leaders and politicians of both stripes who have entered the row, we think they simply have pots to stir and we wish they would not stir at the expense of education and Bermuda's young people. The changes in the system are not going to be easy but they will go more smoothly if the politicians will let them be. If we are to have a major political carry on every time a change, which is designed to improve the school system, is made in that system we will never get the job done.

We think the changes are too important to Bermuda and her young people to be made a hash of by self-serving politicians and political union officials.