Mainstream

Here and all of Europe, back to normal. Now. Since thousands of allegations of sex assaults involving schoolchildren surfaced on a website, there's been uproar. MPs, the media, Ofsted, Children's charities, all calling for blood; all blaming the schools. Hold on! Our teachers' job is to teach. In the last few years we've already foisted enough non-... teaching obligations on them. Filling forms in and reporting to the police, in a whole plethora of situations: They see bruises on children's legs and arms (they are obliged to look for them); they hear five-year-olds using harmless racial insults in the playground. They're required to ask children what they had for breakfast in case their family isn't feeding them properly. If an Asian girl's going to Pakistan in the school hols, they must inform the police "in case she gets married". We're forcing our teachers to be social workers, doctors, nurses, dieticians, and police informers. It's a wonder they have time to do any teaching! Let's consider these new allegations. This is NOT teachers assaulting children. No adults involved. This is about children allegedly assaulting other children. Boy schoolchildren doing it, or trying to do it, to unwilling girl schoolchildren. Well, it turns out that many of the alleged abuses, didn't actually take place at school at all - they were outside school: In the street, on the bus, in the evening at house parties. How are they any concern of the schools? Teachers' only responsibilities once they leave school, is marking homework. Now schools are being told to put "safeguarding policies" in place. Does this mean spying on the children all day long in the classrooms and corridors - watching for unwanted touching? CCTV in the classrooms and the toilet area? Boys have to obtain a girl's written consent to touch her shoulder? Pupils wearing body-cams? Where does it stop? The media seem astonished by all this. Should we really be so surprised? Just like with Jimmy Savile, the word's been around for years and years that this was ...Read More