Monday, August 29, 2005

Oh for fuck sake!

We have the tabloids ranting every day about how Britain is descending into anarchy with the youth of today increasingly running riot with seemingly little punishment for misbehaving and a emphasis on rewarding acceptable behaviour rather than punishing unacceptable behaviour. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised about this piece on the BBC News website.

It seems that a school in Northamptonshire has decided that swearing is something which should be tolerated in the classroom and has taken to allowing their pupils to say "fuck" up to 5 times in every class. Every time a pupil swears a tally is kept on the board. Those children who don't swear will be sent "praise postcards".

Now obviously, I myself am no stranger to swearing, in fact I probably swear more than I should, but the point is that I understand in which situations it is appropriate and in which it is not. For example I'm not going to be on the phone to a client and say "What the fuck do you want?". Part of the point of school is to teach young people how to behave when the leave school and move into the real world.

The headteacher has justified his stance on the scheme by saying "The reality is that the f-word is part of these young adults' everyday language,". How is that a valid justification? By curbing the use of swear words in the classroom, maybe it will be less of a part of their everyday langauge.

If fighting was part of a pupil's everyday behaviour are they going to allow that in the school. The school's stance on the matter is a little confusing as well, if they don't see swearing as a bad thing, why is there a 5 time limit? Also, can they say shit as many times as they like? Who knows?

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Within each lesson the teacher will initially tolerate (although not condone) the use of the f-word (or derivatives) five times and these will be tallied on the board so all students can see the running score"

Now ... is the aim of the scoreboard to be at the top or the bottom ;-) However, on a plus side, maybe the kids will learn some other useful skills such as budgeting, moderation and strategy.

If Im permitted to say it 5 times, then I need to make sure I use my full quota by the end of the day - but without being caught short!

"Over this number the class will be spoken to by the teacher at the end of the lesson."

Phoa .. talk about a stiff punishment! Although, students may also learn disappointment, because thats when you really wish you had a free bonus F***!

5:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure teachers won't be allowed to give "free bonus f***s" out to pupils. That might disrupt the teacher/pupil relationship

1:25 PM  

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