Wednesday 29 June 2011

Scaremongering Much, Mary?

The head of a teaching union today called on parents not to help keep schools open during the planned teachers' strike, saying they could put children "in danger".
Oh? How? Will they be running with scissors?
Mary Bousted, head of the normally moderate Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said well-meaning parents could do more harm than good if they volunteer to look after pupils while teachers take industrial action.
But hang on, these are their own children, aren’t they? What danger could they possibly be between 8:30 and 3:30, that they aren’t outside of those hours?
Ms Bousted said: "Some parents with the best of intentions could put themselves in danger and children in danger. They should not do it."
It’s not just the children at risk, but the parents themselves?

Come on, Mary, be a bit more specific, can’t you? Surely your £130k pay packet buys us that?

13 comments:

john b said...

It's not the 'looking after their own kids' thing, it's the 'looking after *your* kids' thing.

You've surely met parents where you thought "oh my god, these people shouldn't be allowed to have kids [*], and I'm certainly not letting anywhere near mine"? (e.g.).

I'd be bloody reluctant to entrust my putative kids to some random parent from their class, and I don't think that's an unreasonable point to make...

[*] 'shouldn't' = 'in an ideal world would be naturally sterile', not 'government should have the power to stop them'

Miss Prim said...

it's dangerous because Teachers Will be Angry.

When they get back to work, of course.

WV= misprim = a teacher who doesn't strike

Andrew said...

Sounds more like a threat to me.

Tattyfalarr said...

Since most breeders would rather peel off their own toenails than look after their own ...or anyone else's ...children then I'm not sure why this woman felt the need to even try and put them off.
...
There's a certain arrogance in assuming the few parents who would happily step in haven't the intelligence to have worked out for themselves that it would never have been allowed to happen anyway.
...
Therefore I have wonder just what kind of parents that sweeping statement was aimed at and picking up on the fact it was so non-specific as to be laughable is spot on.

Gallovidian said...

Yep, threat.

Shinar's Basket Case said...

Pretty much my whole family were teachers of some ilk so I'd really like to try and muster some sympathy for the teachers.

I really would.

But I can't.

Bunch of overpaid whiney arsed 'hidden parasites', second only to UK farmers for getting money for nothing and thinking the world owes them a living.

Teachers lost all credibility to claim their's was a profession when they cowed down to the National Curriculum and Sats.

Anonymous said...

We are going to see more strikes. The reason is obvious - there is no negotiation. I look forward to strikes by lawyers refusing to work for £10 an hour!
Maybe the teachers are scared they will be found out to be just childminders?
It would be good if we had real public dialogue on these matters, but we don't. Germany is doing rather better than most and they do there.aco

Anonymous said...

I have just discovered my grandson has no clue what the strike is about. Anyone looked recently at the GCSE exams these professional teachers need 11 years to teach our kids? I can only conclude the purpose is to keep them all of the streets. aco

Uncle Badger said...

Definitely the floundering tactic of a dull mind.

How ever will the little dears manage without their Global Warming Studies and Black History Month lessons?

Ronnie Reagan sacked the air traffic controllers when they went on strike - proving how 'special' their talents were when their replacements did just fine.

We could lose a few of our 'oh, so dedicated!' teachers, likewise.

ivan said...

It's fear - fear on the part of the teachers that someone from the outside will see what a mess they allow and also that some of the old, forcibly retired because they were real teachers, teachers return and show them up.

Rob said...

"nice kids you've got here. Shame if anything happened to them"

Bucko said...

""Oh? How? Will they be running with scissors?""

I don't know why but that line really cracked me up. I've been giggling for ages.

JuliaM said...

"You've surely met parents where you thought "oh my god, these people shouldn't be allowed to have kids [*], and I'm certainly not letting anywhere near mine"? (e.g.)."

I certainly have. But those are the LAST parents likely to volunteer, as Tattyfalarr point out...

"We are going to see more strikes. The reason is obvious - there is no negotiation."

On some subjects, there's no room for negotiation. The pensions issue is one such.

"How ever will the little dears manage without their Global Warming Studies and Black History Month lessons?"

The same way everyone managed yesterday. Quite well! There was a strike, then?