We’ll try to improve as parents if schools get rid of woke educational beliefs

HERE’S a question. If your kid comes homes from school and tells you he got a bollocking from the head teacher for some misdemeanour, how do you react?

There are a few options.

Back in the old days, when I was at school, I’d immediately get another bollocking from Mum and Dad.

A worse one than the original bollocking, frankly.

If I complained about being treated a bit harshly at school, the response from my parents was always the same: “Serves you right, behave yourself next time.”

It was the same for all my mates, too.

Parents never questioned the authority of the teachers or the school.

These days it’s a bit different.

There’s at least half a chance Mum or Dad would march up to the school screaming blue murder at the teachers. “How dare you bully my little poppet!”

Or ring up to complain. Or — the least bad modern option — simply sympathise with the child and tell him how horrid the teachers are.

Times have changed — and not for the better.

I was thinking about this when reading an interview on The Sun’s website with the excellent Barry Smith, known as the country’s strictest teacher.

Barry said one of the problems with kids these days is parents are not bringing them up correctly.

I’m sure that’s right, for a whole gamut of reasons involving family breakdowns and the modern, ludicrous insistence that kids should be treated as adults.

Smith said parents don’t teach their kids common courtesies such as saying “good morning”

And he made no apology for being strict.

He said: “We live in a society that thinks stricter is negative. Teachers are abused on a daily basis. They are ignored, they are belittled.”

Yes, he is right.

And these days teachers have virtually no recourse when that abuse takes place. Raise a hand to the kid and they’ll be sacked before the bell sounds for break.

Exclusions are frowned upon and schools get in trouble if they use that tool too often.

Ring the parents at home?

CHILDREN NEED TO LEARN

Too often the response will be that they don’t give a toss, or they’ll get another fusillade of abuse, this time from Dad.

So, sure, teachers do not have sufficient protection.

And the parents are very often not instilling in those kids the correct behaviour.

But he is only half right

Because an awful lot of the problems in our schools are down to modern teaching methods, the way in which we view children these days . . . and teachers themselves.

Where Barry is absolutely right is in his support for strictness.

When I was in school, we had strict teachers and we had lax teachers who tried to be our mates.

With lax teachers we ar*ed around all lesson.

And slightly despised the teachers for grovelling around us.

With the strict teachers we stood when he or she entered the room and shut up and behaved ourselves for the duration.

STRICTNESS WORKS

Homework was always on time because we were terrified of the consequences.

Strictness works.

And it works because children are not yet adults, no matter how often we kid ourselves.

They need to learn, which is why we send them to school.

And they need to understand obedience and discipline.

But those are terribly old-fashioned values.

Too often these days teachers try to be friends with the kids, and when they’re not doing that they are acting as entertainers.

God forbid a child should ever be bored, or ever transgressed.

And so the children find it hard to respect the teachers, because the teachers are not figures of authority.

And the parents at home don’t have much respect for them either, for the same reason.

So here’s the deal, Barry. We’ll try to improve as parents.

But you get to grips with removing all those fashionable educational beliefs which have reduced the authority of teachers in the eyes of the kids. Good luck, mate.

That’s Scot to suck

A WEIRD, massive whirlpool has been found off the coast of Scotland.

Experts think it might be caused by treated water from a landfill site.

I think it’s almost certain that it’s actually a watery portal into the Gates of Hell.

Enter into it and you will find Satan and his infernal demons – all wearing kilts and waving SNP flags.