Story one…
A teacher with 30 years’ experience told yesterday how he was sacked after a rowdy pupil claimed he grabbed his arm and left four small scratch marks.
Ronnie Lane, 56, admitted confronting the unruly 15-year-old boy, who had special educational needs, after he had repeatedly wandered the classroom ‘scrunching up’ other boys’ GCSE art coursework.
The pupil told the teacher he was going to ‘stab him in the eye…’.
Of course, the teacher of 30-years was SACKED !!!
Story two…
Now, lets fast forward to the other story of a group of kids intent on MURDERING another kid because ‘he said he would stab a friend’… a 15-year old kid then repeatedly stabbed two other people coming to the aid of the first kid (one man was an ex-copper)… I dread to think what may have happened if the little shi* had a knife on him…
Connection?
Yup…
- Kids being allowed to do what they want from an early age;
- Kids being allowed to kick off in school without ANY fear of punishment;
- Kids seeing that even cold-blooded murder is seen as a 5-10 year offence (some don’t even get that;
- Kids with no fathers and a culture that applauds violence against women, against anyone really that ‘disrespects’ them;
- Parents that undermine the authority of the school, Police anyone really (even rich kids… look at the iPod wearing schoolgirl story – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389910/Schoolgirl-wins-right-use-iPod-exams-concentrate-unless-shes-listening-music.html)
- Parents that break the law and seem proud of it;
- Kids without boundaries.
How do we stop these things happening?
You can’t… but I think we could make it a bit more difficult if we say, SENT THEM TO PRISON FOR LIFE (until they die)…
Pass new sentencing guidelines to FORCE judges to JAIL between min/max tariffs like they do in the states… i.e. knife used in a crime? 10-15 years in the big house…
With kids that disobeyed school rules-call parents in to deal-no matter what the time etc… if they don’t-off to social services…
Make it clear to parents that kids that kick off WILL BE RESTRAINED and placed in a secure room until they collect them…
Put kids that continually kick off into a special school run by ex-PTI/Drill sergeants from the forces-with full authority to do what is necessary.
Any more?
Shijuro (nearer Go-juro though...) is not georgedixon's relatively honest Blog 
That would suit me, Shij. My kids have always had boundaries. Nothing draconian, but they knew what was right and what was wrong, what behaviour was acceptable and what wasn’t. Strangely they seem to be shaping up ok as adults.
Funny that…
Totally agree, but it’ll never happen now. Those who hold the power in this country, even the conservatives, are now very, very far of the middle and don’t have the funds.
They could save squillions by stopping day trips and holidays for asbo kids. The daughter of a social worker aunt got a nice free holiday too “mentoring” last summer. The whole damn thing is a racket.
In the absence of any brains or balls in parliament, I’d have all prisons air-conditioned.
And the dial set to 5 degrees C by law. Makes 5 years in the cooler a slightly different prospect.
I’m sure that Michael Gove, the education Minister stated in the House of Commons, that this government were going to give teachers their authority again, to physically restrain unruly kids. Was it a Labour controlled LEA
who sacked the teacher for doing his job? Loco parentis – teaching right from wrong and not allowing unruly behaviour that impacts others lives.
I think it can be stopped and the decline can be reversed. It isn’t necessarily all the fault of single parent families with no father figure. It needs a change in thinking on the part of many in the system and parents too.
Many parents, especially poorer ones have been under intense scrutiny by the state systems for the past 25 years. They, mothers, have been disapproved of for smacking and/or even shouting at a defiant child who just will not be told and who will not listen to a parent’s wishes, or rules.
That has undermined parents authority, because they have feared being accused of “child abuse” for doing THEIR JOB of teaching boundaries, discipline and right from wrong. Sometimes a mother will need to be very firm with a kid who is a handful and defiant. Fathers do not normally need to slap or shout, because they already have a natural authority in their deeper voices.
Society has looked down their nose at single mothers, and that too has been a subtle undermining influence upon their authority over their children. Teachers are supposed to work in a sort of “partnership” of mutual support in the important role of raising and teaching children. So what went wrong?
Teachers were given the “authority” OVER parents and assumed the role of extreme “protectors” of children from the “possible” abuse of them by the parents. That changed the relationship between parents and teachers, to the detriment of the children, and society as a whole, as “everyone” became a potential child abuser in the eyes of the state systems. “Protection” went too far, and became over protection of children and oppression of normal parents.
I know that it is a difficult job, raising children, especially alone, and equally it is a difficult job for teachers, health and social workers to spot and prevent genuine abuse being done to a child. There has been an imbalance in the system that HAS undermined parental authority.
The idea of ex service personel being employed to turn the situation around is a good and a workable idea, in the classrooms and in the community,
in the form of street “wardens” who are capable of dealing with aggressive teenagers who are causing all the problems.
Many years ago, in city parks they employed a park warden to make sure that kids behaved themselves in the park and especially in the council provided playgrounds. It worked then and it could work now. The kids respected the “Parkie” because they knew that if they caused trouble, he wouldn’t tolerate it, and they would be in trouble themselves.
If the government stopped handing money over to the EU and spent it on the CRISIS WE HAVE here in the UK, we as a nation could pull together to put things right with this country’s young people.
Sorry, I went on a bit there……