Jayne Dowle: Troops could win the battle to give pupils moral guidance

You can see the appeal. Stand up straight, no talking at the back, route march round the playground if you mess around in class. The British scheme would be aimed at officers and NCOs, well-used to taking on young people and turning them into decent, upstanding human beings. They would brook no nonsense and instil the qualities of respect and leadership which, all too often, are missing at home.

It doesn't take the case of Jon Venables to remind us that so many of our young people are totally lacking in moral guidance. Venables, jailed at the age of 11 with Robert Thompson for the murder of toddler Jamie Bulger, was released in 2001, but is now back behind bars for breaching his parole.

At my old comprehensive, a zoo staffed largely by well-meaning liberals, I remember thinking wistfully of a teacher we had in the final year of primary school. He must have been in his 60s, and had served in the Second World War. He tolerated absolutely no disobedience from his class of unruly 11-year-olds, called us all by our surnames and believed that swinging from gym rope to gym rope in the hall strengthened character. It gave the dinner ladies nightmares. But looking back, we loved him for it. I doubt individuals like him would be allowed across the threshold of a school these days.

If the Conservatives get in at the General Election, perhaps that will change. Under Labour, there have already been various schemes to encourage professionals wishing to change careers and retrain as teachers.

When the recession kicked in, there was a great push to persuade all those out-of-work bankers to become maths teachers. That one didn't quite take off the way the Government envisaged. The prospect of cheese sandwiches in the staff-room instead of champagne and lobster probably put most of them off and sent them fleeing to Switzerland. But, just from personal experience, I know various people who worked in business, or IT, or stayed at home to look after their own kids, who have made the transition into the classroom successfully.

But soldiers. Well, they're different, aren't they? Their presence could make for some lively debate in that staff-room. They would send left-leaning colleagues into paroxysms of angst about the morals of war, patriotism and whether killing other people can ever be justified.

There would certainly have to be some cultural adjustments. School secretaries would be up in arms. Officers used to having their every order obeyed without question wouldn't take too kindly to excuses like,"Oh no, I can't photo-copy that now, I'm on my lunch hour".

You can already hear the howls of protest from those who have worked as teachers for years and worry about their playgrounds turning into parade-grounds. If I was a teacher who did manage to keep order in my class, and that is no mean feat, I would feel more than a little patronised and even more disheartened than usual. It does kind of assume that our education system is in such a bad way that only a series of raids by the SAS can save it.

I do wonder, too, if the idea fits rather too neatly into the nostalgia for the past which seems to cloud too much of our political thinking these days. Even if Britain really is broken, we can't mend it by assuming that a short, sharp shock will sort everything out. We'll be bringing back National Service next. If I was a soldier leaving the forces, wondering about my next move, and being persuaded to turn to teaching, I might feel a little too much like a pawn in a political game. If I was going to do it, I would want to do it for myself, not just to fulfil some quota.

But as a parent, I am definitely enthusiastic about the idea. Without making too many assumptions, it would be likely that many of these soldiers would be men – and strong male role models in school are always a good thing, for pupils of both sexes. They would certainly have a story or two to tell, and being able to entrance children with tales of adventure can get them on side when no amount of formal teaching will engage them. And ultimately, they would bring with them more than a sniff of the world outside the classroom.

What better preparation for the future than to be taught by a teacher who has lived life to the full?