Gavin Williamson wants school discipline clampdown. Based on what evidence?
Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em: Gavin Williamson was unkindly compared to Frank Spencer from the 70s sitcom. Sadly, if he were more like the character Michael Crawford immortalised, he’d probably care more about children’s well-being and less about subjecting them to “discipline” – which, in the mouth of a Tory, seems very creepy indeed.
Gavin Williamson, the dunderheaded education secretary who illegally scrapped dozens of legal rights for children, is attacking them again.
This time he’s telling us that long periods in lockdown have “inevitably” turned our children feral, and they need to have hefty amounts of discipline whacked into them now that schools are open again.
(When I say “whacked”, I should stress that he’s not actually promoting a return to physical punishments – although I wouldn’t put it past him and our government of weirdo fascists.)
I see no evidence in support of Williamson’s claim. Indeed, information he has provided himself suggests that kids in lockdown have settled down to the different routine of remote schooling via the internet.
“Technology has been invaluable keeping children learning during lockdowns and we support its use,” he said.
Unfortunately, in the very same breath, he demanded that technology is a disruptive influence and that mobile phones should be banned from schools.
He’s actually trying to do something clever here – supporting a lie with a truth. But we can all see through it – can’t we?
This Writer’s personal opinion is that mobile phones shouldn’t be allowed in classrooms. If kids insist on bringing them in, teachers should keep a list of those who have them, and should collect them in the morning and give them back at the end of the school day.
It would be too easy to use internet-enabled mobiles to cheat – and that would undermine the point of going to school.
The points about cyberbullying and inappropriate use of social media are, on balance, also fair:
Mr Williamson has made banning mobile phones in schools a key part of his plan, saying they not only distract from “exercise and good old-fashioned play” but also foment cyber bullying and the inappropriate use of social media.
But he has produced no evidence to suggest that possession of a mobile phone, use of it as an education tool during lockdown, or indeed being forced to stay at home at all have eroded discipline in children.
Indeed, if our kids have buckled down and studied at home, without a teacher standing over them, that tends to indicate that they have employed self-discipline. Doesn’t it?
Also, he hasn’t provided any information about the kind of discipline he intends to impose. Is he advocating the conversion of our schools into training grounds for some kind of imposed fascism – the “Johnson Youth”?
The backlash has started:
https://twitter.com/LeoMontague91/status/1379583270917132292
https://twitter.com/MrGoose59899263/status/1379554935017201666
https://twitter.com/notthatkate/status/1379690325451669506
Gavin Williamson says children have lost “discipline and order” during lockdown – as he launches a ‘behaviour crackdown’ on children. This is disgusting. What our kids have had to endure over the past year is beyond acceptable and then he has the bare-faced cheek to say this. pic.twitter.com/LkTuyf0vhu
— James Melville 🚜 (@JamesMelville) April 6, 2021
From front page of tomorrow’s Tele: a new low for Gavin Williamson. The lack of structure wasn’t inevitable – eg the Observer & others were calling for a free national programme of outdoor summer activities – it was a political choice, by a government who couldn’t be bothered. pic.twitter.com/pCnAjOotmI
— Sonia Sodha (@soniasodha) April 6, 2021
Last word: It has been alleged that Williamson’s discipline drive is a retaliation against kids who criticised him for policies like his stupid algorithm-based plan to replace exam marks, that automatically assumed that state school pupils would not achieve results as high as those who were privately-educated…
lmao when some kids call Gavin Williamson out on his ridiculous behaviour and his actions that have disadvantaged thousands of children, he goes ahead and writes an article on how children have “lost discipline”. Classic Gavin. Typical Tory.
— Hi! I’m a shouty man! (@IamAShoutyMan) April 7, 2021
Can anybody provide evidence to support this? I haven’t seen any.
But you have to admit, based on his behaviour, it rings true.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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Yap yap and lie can we go at least a day without a senior Tory scummer gobbling off and then lying to support their drivel?
If the tame MSM actually did their damn job and checked their ravings maybe the UK population whould see the Tory scum as the idiots we know them to be…!
Police in Schools is this an excuse to put yet more police on schools and criminalise disadvantaged young people
The activities of school police officers, often known as safer schools officers (SSOs), range from being a point of contact for teachers to more intensive interventions such as stop and search and surveillance of children suspected of being gang members.
While police forces say SSOs play an important role in keeping children safe, campaigners and charities warn that their presence risks criminalising young people, could exacerbate inequalities, and creates a culture of low expectations and a climate of hostility.
“When you introduce police into schools you threaten to jeopardise a child’s education by criminalising them at a very young age. The school is no longer a safe haven, a space where they feel like they can be helped,” said Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury, a Manchester University lecturer and co-author of a report on police presence in schools.
Details of the police deployments were revealed in a freedom of information request to all UK police forces. They showed that 23 forces employed 683 officers whose roles were exclusively focused on schools.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/25/uk-police-forces-deploy-683-officers-in-schools
Just for an example from personal experience: I work in a Care Home adjacent to Sevenoaks- hardly an Inner City no-go zone.
It is situated by a Lake and last Summer the immediate environs became subject to a daily and nightly invasion by feral youths.
They took the place over, pissed in people’s gardens, abused the neighbours, vandalised the property generally, including lighting fires, and eventually security guards and link fencing had to be installed.
But what is the point of even commenting on this ranting rubbish.
You trivialise the holocaust and piss on the graves of the genuine victims of systematic torture and murder in contemporary totalitarian regimes by your repetitive accusations of Fascist as applied to a’Conservative’ Government which won democratically, and merely because they are ‘Tories’, as silly old bourgeois Reds who endorsed genocide like Foot and Wedgwood-Benn invariably called them.
As white middle class ‘educated’ baby-radicals yourselves, you are simply feeding the vicious cycle of soy-boy Antifas hatred and violence, which you also deny and viciously gang up on anybody who documents it.
Or even , like Mr. Mumford, twitters a little tweet praising the bravery of the writer who got beaten up by left wing thugs in the process of revelation.
I appreciate this sounds strong, but your entire style is pure hatred and vitriol. With this hysterical level of hyperbole, how in heck are you going to be able to react to REAL hardline totalitarianism if it happens?
Get serious, grow up out of the Student Union bar years, and think on real totalitarianism and genocide, real blood and horror, as with Mugabe and Mao and the Abortion Clinics.