In 1970, the British Secretary of State for Education and Science Margaret Thatcher, asked James to chair a government inquiry into teacher training. His slant on education of future teachers included a conviction that teachers should be educated rather than trained. He wanted teachers who could inspire children; beside this great principle, what or how they should teach were questions of lesser import. He held that a single subject, well taught, might form the basis of a true education; equally that an apparently alluring spread of studies, badly taught, would simply become a drab routine.