A number of children at a Poole academy were taken out of lessons for pencil case equipment infractions - including having a ruler 10cm too short.Predictably, there’s outrage, OUTRAGE!
Several parents contacted The Daily Echo to complain their children at Magna Academy, Poole, had been put into 'isolation' for not fully complying with the schools strict equipment list.
They said more than 40 children were thought to have been held away from their classmates in another room in silence, and released only when their parents brought in the correct piece of kit.Ah, so the lazy parents who refused to comply with the rules had their lives disrupted? Good! Who says schools can’t change behaviour?
Miranda Crumpler said she was astonished when her 12-year-old son was put in isolation for having a pencil case that was too short.
She said: "The academy says it wants to educate to a high standard, but how can pupils be educated when they are put in isolation like this? It is ridiculous."Is it, Mrs Crumpler? Is it really?
Mrs Crumpler said her son was warned by teachers, last week, that isolation was beckoning if he didn't get a 30cm pencil case and ruler by Monday.
"I wrote a note saying I would not have my son put into isolation, and that he had a 30cm ruler but it was folding - and it does not state in school policy that it couldn't be folding," she said.So….to sum up, you thought you’d get into a pissing contest with the school to try to get them to back down and lost? Ha ha ha ha!
Frankly, the thing holding most of these kids back isn’t obsessive school rules, but parents who, it would seem, never grew up properly themselves.
Richard Tutt is head of the academy, formally Ashdown Technology College, which has gone from being in special measures to an outstanding Ofsted rating in less than two years, and was described as "truly inspiring" by Prime Minister David Cameron earlier this year.
He said correct equipment "is vital for students" and "clear and specific requirements" were communicated to parents in July and again at the start of term last week.And learning when to ‘comply with clear and specific requirements’ even when you don’t personally agree with them are part and parcel of grown up life, if you expect to get a job.
If your parents aren’t teaching you that, then be thankful that your school seems prepared to do so.
I'm with the parents on this one.
ReplyDeleteSome rules make sense. These are pettifogging for no good reason and deserve to be robustly challenged. Remember - the parents are the customer here and the school, if we lived in anything like a sane world, would be aware of that and behave accordingly.
As for a lesson in life (no, that is not the school's role, it is the parents') - learning when to challenge authority is a good thing, not a bad one. Meekly doing what others tell us regardless of whether it is right, wrong or downright petty nonsense, is a sign of weakness. It's how the PC brigade have managed to overwhelm this country and turn it into a bunch of panty-wetters. Bullies persist when we allow them to. Standing up to them is the only reasonable course of action and rules regarding the size of a ruler or pencil-case are definitely designed to provoke meek obedience and compliance in the drones. It serves no other useful purpose. Certainly it has bugger-all to do with a high standard of education. As excuses go, that's pathetic.
I have ceased to be amazed that we get these stories every year about little Johnny or Joanne being sent home from school because their hair is too short or their hair is too long or their trousers are too tight or too baggy or their shoes are the wrong shade of black or some other minor, inconsequential infraction. When did we stop training teachers who could teach our children regardless of what they were wearing? When did teachers become unable to teach a class of children unless they all looked like clones of one another?
ReplyDeleteWhy are our universities turning out teachers who can't teach?
Sorry Joolz, but I'm with LR on this one..
ReplyDeleteSeriously, the head teacher in this one sounds like a complete prick.
ReplyDeleteIf they can't even follow simple equipment and uniform rules when the institution mandates them then they will not even be able to get and keep a job flipping burgers at McDonalds.
ReplyDeleteMy Grandson goes to that school (new pupil) my daughter made the effort to ask about this equipment, she was told what to get and why. She followed this and guess what they changed their minds so his stuff was wrong. He was threatened with isolation, but my daughter being feisty like myself said just try it. The school did not apologise for this "minor" mistake and my daughter had to insist that he was given a note explaining this so the Nazi patrols of the school would not hook him out and punish him.
ReplyDeleteA couple of further points. Some teachers don't give a toss, as long as they have a ruler, pencil etc that's fine.
second point is that the school are trying to get everyone dressed exactly the same and carry the same bags in shape and colour and all equipment to be identical. Does that not smack of some fiction novel? I would not let my child be cloned and be treated like this, but then again I have free will.
PS I do believe about 17 teachers left that school last year. Thoughts anyone?
And I don't give a fuck about spelling and grammar I have led a successful fulfilling life so far, we pay taxes and contribute. School taught me how to stand up for myself have ethics and morale's, but perhaps not enough English lessons.
My job requires me to provide my customer with what they want, when they want, in exchange for the money on which I live.
ReplyDeleteIf this same relationship between economic reality and educational excellence existed in what today passes for a school, one would not read of such inanities as the foregoing account of little-Hitlerism in full swing over a pencil case.
When authority is perceived to be wielded for the benefit of the ego of those in authority, the usual effect is to breed a contempt for said authority in the sad recipient of the attempts at social conditioning, which is almost as bad for society, in the long run, as conforming to the conditioning in preparation for becoming the next tranche of yellow-vested, clipboard-waving, more-than-my-jobsworth, hard-of-thinking scum that blight the lives of those who actually pay for this ridiculous system.
If this 'academy' has managed to shift its Ofsted rating from 'utter shite' to 'still shite but without the knifings' by pretending to educate children in this fashion, this serves merely to reinforce the notion I already hold dear that most teachers are morons, and those that inspect them doubly so, and we wonder why the young are so utterly bereft of independent thinking.
Longrider, sorry but you are wrong on several points.
ReplyDeleteThe parents are NOT the customer in this case. a) schooling of a child is a legal requirement. b) the local authority assigned the child to a school and the parents have no say in the matter other than deciding to home school the child. You would only be correct if there were several schools available that the parents could choose from, and pay for.
Your argument on challenging authority in this case is spurious at the best. What is going on here is the the school has determined that each child needs a certain minimal set of tools and have given a list of what they are. In industry a worker generally has a minimum set of tools necessary to do the job, they may be supplied by the employer or bought by the worker - for example, try getting on to a construction site without steel toed boots and a hard hat, they are requirements of the job just as a set of pens and pencils, rulers and drawing instruments are the required set of tools for a child in school.
You say that rules regarding the length of a ruler serve no useful purpose. I would ask how do you propose drawing a straight line 30 cm long or measure something 18 cm long with a 10 cm ruler?
I do agree that there are some rules that should be challenged, this is not one of the neither is the one on school uniforms - that one stops the girls appearing as sluts.
Anonymous, your daughter should have insisted on getting the list in writing that way there could not be any misunderstanding and if the school later changed things without informing her then they were at fault and could be seen to be. As to the teachers leaving, were they the good or indifferent ones?
Ivan,
ReplyDeleteYou strike me as the kind of person who grew up wanting to be a referee, instead of the striker.
I guess a solution to the old chestnut of how to draw an 18cm long line with a 10cm long ruler would be, I'm guessing here, similar to the one for drawing a 40cm long line with a 30cm ruler.
The most important 'tool' in a kid's arsenal is his brain, and training them into mindless conformity to ridiculous rules, enforced by petty box-tickers, is a sure-fire way of blunting that tool, usually for life, one way or another.
I suppose they could always become teachers.
Ivan.
ReplyDeleteSo my daughter is lying? forgetful ? stupid ? she had to initiate the request, personally that to me is wrong. She did what was instructed nothing more nothing less!
The teachers left because ? I don't know. But 17 is very high, perhaps they did not have the correct rulers, pencil cases or even brains!
My daughter is the customer, the more pupils the better the funding ?
Or perhaps it could be like the other academy about 2 miles away. Look up St Aldhems academy. Just a thought who had to cover that little fuck up.
Ivan, you are so wrong on so many levels, I don't even know where to start...
ReplyDeleteWho pays for the schooling? Parents do. They are most certainly the customer - even if it is compulsory. We, the taxpayers are the customer for every public service provided by the state - whether it is compulsory or not. We are therefore within our rights to complain when those services do not meet expected standards. Or, as in this case, the provider behaves like an arsehole.
Your argument on challenging authority in this case is spurious at the best. What is going on here is the the school has determined that each child needs a certain minimal set of tools and have given a list of what they are. In industry a worker generally has a minimum set of tools necessary to do the job, they may be supplied by the employer or bought by the worker - for example, try getting on to a construction site without steel toed boots and a hard hat, they are requirements of the job just as a set of pens and pencils, rulers and drawing instruments are the required set of tools for a child in school.
Bollocks on stilts. I work in the rail industry, so I'm well aware that there are certain areas where rules apply as do specified items of equipment. To compare this with the insistence that a 30cm pencil case is "essential" for a high standard of education is so utterly ridiculous it requires no further consideration.
The child needs a ruler for certain tasks and a container to carry it - the length is neither here nor there. This is a rule for the sake of it. As such, challenging it is appropriate and the right thing to do. And, in these circumstances, I'd do just that. Frankly, the parents should withdraw their children en masse until the petty little dictator who set the rules is reminded just who is paying his salary.
You say that rules regarding the length of a ruler serve no useful purpose. I would ask how do you propose drawing a straight line 30 cm long or measure something 18 cm long with a 10 cm ruler?
You are not serious? Really? I've managed it in the past. It isn't difficult.
The most important 'tool' in a kid's arsenal is his brain, and training them into mindless conformity to ridiculous rules, enforced by petty box-tickers, is a sure-fire way of blunting that tool, usually for life, one way or another.
This. Precisely this. And learning to stand up to petty tyrants who think that whatever rules they set must be obeyed without question no matter how absurd.
If they can't even follow simple equipment and uniform rules when the institution mandates them then they will not even be able to get and keep a job flipping burgers at McDonalds.
Maybe they won't be seeking a job in MacDonalds? And, maybe, if they learn some critical thinking, they will be able to hold down better jobs because they have common sense? Might just be worth a shot.
"...deserve to be robustly challenged..."
ReplyDeleteA good rule of thumb: disregard all comments that include the word "robustly".
XX Anonymous ivan said...
ReplyDeleteI would ask how do you propose drawing a straight line 30 cm long or measure something 18 cm long with a 10 cm ruler? XX
Teacher wants us to draw a three meter line! O shit!! We are TRULY FUCKED!
A good rule of thumb: disregard all comments that include the word "robustly".
ReplyDeleteOnly if you are an unthinking cretin who need silly rules to tell them what to think.
"I'm with the parents on this one."
ReplyDeleteSomehow, I knew you would be... ;)
"As for a lesson in life (no, that is not the school's role, it is the parents') - learning when to challenge authority is a good thing, not a bad one. "
Equally, so is learning why to challenge it. That test is not met here.
"...some other minor, inconsequential infraction. "
Is it really so inconsequential? 'Here are the rules for attendance, obey them' should be a lesson no-one's capable of failing, surely?
"If they can't even follow simple equipment and uniform rules when the institution mandates them then they will not even be able to get and keep a job flipping burgers at McDonalds."
Yes, THIS!
"Does that not smack of some fiction novel?"
ReplyDeleteNo, it smacks of a school trying to teach discipline. The fact that some teachers have left indicates they too are incapable of learning!
"And I don't give a fuck about spelling and grammar..."
An attitude that'll get you far, I'm sure...
"My job requires me to provide my customer with what they want, when they want, in exchange for the money on which I live."
But as ivan points out, the parents are not 'customers' here. Nor is anon's daughter. The 'customer' is society.
"Maybe they won't be seeking a job in MacDonalds? And, maybe, if they learn some critical thinking, they will be able to hold down better jobs because they have common sense?"
They can't all go work for Google. Or any other company that has an 'anything goes' ethos.