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Politicians are lining up to offer tough talk. Apparently we live in a 'broken' and 'sick' society. Children growing up with no sense of themselves as citizens. No discipline in schools. Being failed by teachers and parents alike. They've grown up with a sense of warped entitlement, borne partly of state handouts etc etc etc.
OR:
How bout the fact that this government and indeed the last two governments have consistently downgraded the role of teachers? Their wages have not risen at the same rate as other professions of similar qualification level, so that they are comparatively low paid. They've been the whipping boy of three successive governments when it comes to child crime and lack of social cohesion amongst the youth. But they've been hemmed in at all bloody sides when it comes to actually teaching these kids.
In the tabloid press, in political speeches, in the constant refrain to save our broken schools, and start turning kids into citizens again, teachers as a profession are at best disregarded, or at worst villified. How can we expect children in schools to hold their teachers up as social models and respect them as a matter of course, when we as a society have lost respect for their profession.
Then I hear from Cameron, that kids 'are growing up not knowing the difference between right and wrong' and the government are going to restore a sense of moral decency in all our towns etc etc. As usual this is placed firmly on the parents and teachers, not instilling these values, and not providing a proper civic example.
OR: how bout these kids are growing up seeing their elected officials prosecuted for expense fiddling and outright fraud, the top police officials standing down pending enquiries into fraud and corruption at the highest level, and a financial meltdown caused in large part by the unscrupulous actions of the banking and broking elite.
Yes, parents have the ultimate responsibility for their children's upbringing and moral outlook. But to place the blame so firmly on to them and the teachers who are struggling to try and find a way to actually educate these kids beyond the test-passing exercises they're dragged through at every new stage, and ignore the wider picture is disengenuous.
Utterly hypocritical to stand up there and point fingers at a section of society that is 'without morals' when your own social group has been shown to be morally bankrupt.
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