Had the plumbers round this morning.
Having established my wife is a teacher, the younger of the two, in his thirties but probably not a parent, said "I see Michael Gove is going to make it OK for them to hit pupils".
I think he expected to enlist my automatic disapproval. I widened my eyes in the "you don't say" expression I use when I don't want to pursue a line of conversation.
The older of the two, definitely a parent, said "some of them want a good hiding" and carried on with his work without looking up.
This is why I don't watch "Question Time".
Interesting role reversal. Round our way it's more likely the conversation would have gone something like:
ReplyDeletePlumber: "I see Michael Gove is going to make it OK for them to hit pupils"
Me: awkward silence
By the way, a teacher (who works at one of the more 'challenging' schools in the area) friend of ours reported that a parent was offended at one of the teachers asking a child to look at her when she was talking to her. Offended so much, in fact, that a vow was made to 'beat an apology out of her'.
It's gone beyond the debate about whether to reintroduce an element of corporal punishment or not*. It's the parents that are the real problem.
*As someone who grew up in Scotland in the 70s, my feeling would be no. Too many of the teachers who administered 'the strap' clearly took too much perverse pleasure in the act for me to support the return of such weirdness in the 21st century.
Above should read:
ReplyDeletePlumber: "I see Michael Gove is going to make it OK for them to hit pupils. About bloody time."
Random outpourings I can tolerate. Question Time I can't, especially when they chuck the guest on from the non-political world. I still await the edition with Vinnie Jones as that guest.
ReplyDelete