Just Potty...

Potty training is a parent’s job, according to Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted, interviewed earlier this week. It’s such an uncontroversial statement – who could think otherwise?

Ooh, don't tell me, let me guess! Is it a sanctimonious 'Guardian' hack?

Like children who arrive with very little English, potty training arouses great concern among commentators, a signifier of some deeper malaise, but is not a steady or fixed state: children learn quite fast.

These children apparently haven't. Should that not ring alarm bells then?

What does worry a Guardian hack?

Far more intractable are the problems associated with poverty; hunger, insecure housing, punishingly long school days, when both parents are working all the hours they can.

Ah. Of course. Children aren't being toilet trained because there's a lack of 'social justice', Sure. That's plausible.

Most of these potty pronouncers have no direct experience of the state sector, and educated their own children elsewhere.

 Yes, the sort of schools you don't get into if you are born to inadequate parents.

Let’s say for the sake of argument, though, that potty training was uppermost in schools’ minds. A creative approach would start with finding a way to support parents who were struggling, which would be sympathetic, non-judgmental and inclusive.

Because the sympathetic, non-judgmental and inclusive approach has worked so well in the criminal justice system, eh?

...blaming the parents is a political act, about as political as it gets.

I have to concur with Longrider.