[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Loz

Can't believe your opinion on this Jambutty.
I thought that being from the generation you are that respect for the teachers and school would be something you would advocate not slagging them off for trying to get pupils in school so they can get an education.
I would never have turned up late for school without good reason and if i did i would expect to be punished.
If you let kids get away with murder now there is no hope for the future.

Well you had better believe it because it is my opinion.

I had full respect for my teachers whilst I was at school and yes I did take the odd day off now and then. But I quickly learned that the only person to suffer for doing so was me. In any case it was no fun up the park on your own. I got behind in the lessons and had to work twice as hard to catch up. Also in those days if a copper spotted a pupil not in school he would march the kid to where s/he should be. That was usually the school or the kid’s home to confront the parent. But the cop had the authority to do so. Teachers outside of the school premises do not except as I have already explained. So that teacher was utterly and totally wrong.

When my own kids were at school the attitude of some of the teachers, particularly head teachers bordered on “god like” where the school was always right and the pupils and parents were always wrong irrespective of the circumstances. The head teachers treated the parents as if they were pupils at the school, or rather tried to. Then if you didn’t back down to the head s/he would take it out on the child.

When my grandchildren were at school the school attitude got even more “god like”. In one incident my grandson, not being the biggest in his class, got thrown down some stairs and all the teacher would do was to send the kids packing to their next class. It turned out that my grandson had suffered a hairline fracture right around his skull and the head and the witnessing teacher denied all knowledge of the incident and the gall to suggest that the damage was done at home.

During his final year at school the bully boys of his class grabbed his coat and threw it away. By chance it fell over the aerial of a teacher’s car but it wasn’t parked in the specified car park but on a sort of forecourt near the school entrance. With more than adequate parking, albeit at least 100 yards away from the main entrance, the car should not have been parked there anyway. Particularly as a plaque on the wall declared “Visitor’s Car Park” As my grandson retrieved his coat it bent the aerial.

You won’t believe the next bit but it is perfectly true. The owner of the car, a teacher, tried to blame my grandson for damaging the ELECTRIC AERIAL on his car and was seeking the cost of a new one from him or his mother (my daughter). As anyone who has ever had an electric car aerial knows, when you switch the radio or ignition off the aerial automatically retracts and rises again when the ignition or radio is switched on again. Thus either the aerial was not an electric one or it was broken anyway and this teacher was trying it on to get a brand new aerial for nothing by blaming my grandson.

Even when I intervened the head sided with the teacher even after I pointed out the anomaly of his allegation and both refused to allow me to inspect the alleged damage. My parting words were “Sue my grandson in the small claims court.”

No such case was brought, but until his final day my grandson became a target for that teacher.

I do not have any experience with the modern teachers other than by hearsay and unlike some correspondents on this forum, hearsay isn’t enough for me to form an opinion.