On account of me being a “real, live writer” (their words, not mine) my children’s school has invited me in to speak to the Year 4 class my daughter is in as they are about to embark upon a short story writing project.

As I am a modest, bashful type without a shred of ego and who doesn’t like being in the limelight, I thought long and hard about whether or not I should attend for perhaps three or four seconds before agreeing.

To be quite honest, I was expecting the whole experience of talking to a class full of eight-year-olds to be something akin to a chimp’s tea party. I did wonder whether I’d made a mistake when I was ushered into the classroom and introduced as “Mr Barnett” while my daughter held her head in her hands.

My misgivings were further compounded because I had a mortal fear of my trouser zip falling down and I had an egg sandwich in my bag, which I feared would give off some dreadful odour the children would forever associate my name with.

Also, the very classroom itself completely threw me. The teacher input my name into a laptop and it appeared up on the interactive white board. I was asked if I wished to make notes on the board, and wondered if that meant using the laptop, but was told to just write on the board itself.

I was only half-joking when I asked where the chalk and board-dusters were.

But lo and behold... what a wonderful experience it was. If any of the children were bored they didn’t show it via the usual methods of falling asleep, picking their noses or flicking ink-blots at each other. They actually listened to what I had to say, responded to me with clear, confident speech and asked really intelligent, thoughtful questions.

You may read elsewhere in the T&A today about a new study that says children increasingly see reading as somewhat “embarrassing”. Literacy levels, we are constantly told, are dropping like lead balloons, and children are dumbing down thanks to wall-to-wall TV and video games.

But on the evidence of this class of children in an ordinary state primary school, I’m much cheered about the state of our nation’s literacy levels.

Imagination is still king among children, and it hasn’t been blunted or beaten down by passive iPad apps or TV shows. All we have to do is make sure our children are allowed to let their imagination take full flight.

Reading doesn’t have to be an expensive business – so long as the Government hasn’t quite overseen the complete closure of our library services. And the doors it opens are to worlds almost without limit.

Also – and I fully appreciate I only spent 45 minutes standing in front of a class, and I don’t do it every day of the week – I felt it was such a rewarding experience that I had newfound respect for those who spend their lives teaching. Good teachers are worth their weight in gold and we should value them as much as we can.