Saturday 20 August 2011

Another One Who’s Part Of The Problem, Not The Solution…

Saci Lloyd is a teacher:
… over the last year my colleagues and I have watched with growing despair as the last shreds of the rug are pulled out from under our kids' feet. EMA gone. Youth centres closed. Tuition fees trebled. University places cut. And now a thinktank has warned that students from low-income families are even less likely to be offered university places next year.
Oh, woe is you, Saci! But at least you aren’t using that as an apology for their actions. Are you?
Do I think this gives them the right to run riot through city centres and set upon ordinary working people? No, I do not. But ask me if I think young people have the right to be angry as all hell and I will give you an unequivocal yes.
They have as ‘right to be angry’, do they?

Well, so what? We all do. I have a right to be angry about all sorts of things, if I want. That doesn’t, however, make my anger justified.
If rioting is unforgivable then equally indefensible is the lack of training and investment in the inner city. If looting is criminal then equally immoral is the abandonment of whole tranches of the urban landscape to decay and gang law.
Who is it you think has ‘abandoned them’, Saci?
… day after day I teach students who have to take three buses to college to avoid travelling through enemy territory. They arrive in class at nine, nerves rattling, exhausted already before the day has begun.
Hmmm. Bet some robust policing or stop and search would help, eh?

So, why are you not calling for it?
… those of us working in inner-city schools, youth centres and community organisations find ourselves in the crosshairs of moralists who wouldn't last five minutes in the place. No school discipline. Widespread lack of respect in the classroom. These soundbites are an offence to a whole bunch of dedicated professionals who are striving to reach the highest possible standards for their students.
And the question must be, are you succeeding? You certainly seem to think you are:
Many inner-city colleges now have a pastoral system that would astonish the previous generation, with strong emphasis on personal accountability and giving back to the community.
How about an anecdote? Give us some details, eh?
As A-level results come out with record pass rates, the press drools over photogenic girls celebrating their A* grades. And good luck to them – they worked hard and they deserve their university places. Meanwhile, one of my brightest students wasn't even able to sit her exams because she's awaiting trial following a police raid on her house. They found her in possession of her boyfriend's sawn-off shotgun. He'd asked her to hide it for him. She didn't want to, but felt she had no choice. Stupid? Yes. Wrong? Yes. But what a position for a 17-year-old east London schoolgirl to find herself in, barely two miles from the penthouse apartments of Canary Wharf, and as far from the lives of the A* girls as it's possible to be.
Oh, I don’t even know where to start
Could we do more? Yes. Many of these young people rioting on the streets have dropped out of education.
Really? A lot of the ones caught so far have put ‘student’ on their court papers. A lot aren’t even students, rather, grown men and women!

But I’ll indulge you. What’s the answer?
Educational institutions need to be prepared to keep underperforming students for longer, to work with a wider range of frontline youth groups to engage difficult students in more creative ways – and colleges also need to offer more flexible learning hours so that a young person can fit in schooling around their work shifts.
How much longer? What ‘more creative ways’?
Like it or not, these kids are not someone else's problem. They are ours and it's high time we welcomed them back home.
They aren’t mine. And if it’s up to anyone to welcome them back, surely it’s their own parents?

14 comments:

Ringmer said...

Presumably she teaches Victimhood Studies 2 da Yoof.
Living proof you can have a raft of qualifications and still be a weapons grade idiot.

Uncle Badger said...

You've got to admire the Left's mental gymnastics!

You create a problem, then whine abut how unfair it is.

Gallovidian said...

They feel displaced and dispossesed. They should be helped to return to their native lands and given a grant to start a beter life there.

SBC said...

http://nothing-2-declare.blogspot.com/2011/08/wotz-belgium-innit-by-sbc.html

Pretty much sums up the state of education in this cuntry.

"an offence to a whole bunch of dedicated professionals who are striving to reach the highest possible standards for their students."

Good, I'm glad you take umbrage and feel wounded. Maybe you could now actually DO YOUR JOBS that we over pay you for and teach the little bastards something beyond 'Entitlement', 'Multiculturalism' and 'Pregnancy'...Reading and writing would be a start for most.

bodo said...

No doubt she is one of those on the left who welcomed Third World mass immigration that has created the fractured menacing violent society that we now see in our inner-cities.

She's probably also one of those who ignored the growing problem of gang culture because to tackle it would be seen as racist?

Does she support the generous welfare system that has encouraged the destruction of the traditional family and replaced it with feckless incompetent single-parenthood?

The problem she complains about are entirely due to her and her political fellow travellers. And her solution, more of the policies that got us into this mess in the first place. God help us.

David Gillies said...

Oh, come on Julia. Don't be so judgemental. Are you honestly going to tell me you've never been asked to hide a boyfriend's sawn-off shotgun? Teenage foibles. It's like, if the feds had been all up on my bitches every time I asked them to mule three keys of skag for me, none of them would have got her physics degree. Fight da power!

Double-barreled said...

"ay after day I teach students who have to take three buses to college to avoid travelling through enemy territory."

The enemy? Who would that be? German bombers from 1940? The Kaiser's finest circa 1916? Perhaps leftover Confederates from the early 1860s?

Here's the problem. The enemies of progress and social harmony are, er, the scum who make up those 'communities' who we admire. They apparently have such a hold on the lives of these travelling youngsters that open warfare erupts every morning. Dawn raids on London Transport buses clearly plays havoc with the well-being of students who wanna learn, innit.

But we must not say that Da Future Gangstas of London Yoof are an influence. We must not pretend they are one of the causes that no one wants to get any work done.

It's someone else's fault, pulling the rug from under them. EMA not being paid? Load up the sawn off, souljas... There are trainers to be stolen.

Captain Haddock said...

Ahhh .. here's Saci waxing entirely predictably .. just wait until her colleagues, Baci & Craci, from the victimhood-choir join her in the clamour of the collective dirge ..

John Pickworth said...

Oh for gawds sake...

Saci Lloyd bemoaning those poor frustrated souls who have had their dreams of University snatched away from them.

But wait.

Saci Lloyd's profile says; "Saci returned to Manchester as an undergraduate, but soon quit University for a life of glamour..."

You couldn't make it up.

Captain Haddock said...

Saci Lloyd's profile says; "Saci returned to Manchester as an undergraduate, but soon quit University for a life of glamour..."

Judging by the photo .. another weapons-grade failure then ..

JuliaM said...

"Presumably she teaches Victimhood Studies 2 da Yoof. "

I wouldn't be surprised...

"Reading and writing would be a start for most."

What kind of job could they get without these basics?

"The problem she complains about are entirely due to her and her political fellow travellers."

Spot on!

"Don't be so judgemental. Are you honestly going to tell me you've never been asked to hide a boyfriend's sawn-off shotgun? "

:D

JuliaM said...

"The enemy? Who would that be?"

Someone should tell them that it's Saci Lloyd and her fellow travellers.

"Saci Lloyd's profile says..."

/facepalm

Twenty_Rothmans said...

I'd rather let my child be taught by Ian Brady than Saci Lloyd.

What a whining, hand-wringing example of what's wrong with the education system Mrs Lloyd is.

Hopefully, her next encounter with a young person who's as angry as hell will be in a dark alley. This will give her ample scope to connect with the young person, listen to, and meet his needs.

Rob said...

She is reaping what her political ancestors demanded. She is no innocent victim, as she demans the same lunacy they advocated.

Suck it up, crazy.