Recognition that punishment of any sort remains private and is NOT shared with other pupils. Vital but not easily achieved . many punishments by their nature an re very public….detention ISS ………and their is still a feeling by some professionals that justice should be exemplary. Actually some punishments can be counterproductive. In detention ‘en mass’ […]

So even if there is a divide in response it would be along self ascribed categories of gender , not biologically defined categories of sex. ( Of course Freud also opens our eyes to the fact that sex ( biological ascription or differentiation ) and sexuality are not oven in the same analytical category)!. Freudians/Lacanians […]

Now many clinical psychologists use sex as a ‘natural’ division which is ‘worth’ exploring . If most girls exhibit ‘A’ and most boys ‘B’ then it appropriate to override a normal presumption of equality. They argue this empirically , rejecting further differentiation on the grounds that it is Utopian, but as I have made clear […]

Of course, the Senate evidence ignores the fact Shelly did not act alone, and , moreover there was an example to be set within the social reality of the school. So punishment played an important and symbolic function.this was ignored by the senators again, but was the overriding concern of the Assistant Principal. So the […]

Then we have SCHOOLING. This to me is something entirely separate from education . Of course the goal of schooling is education , but the school implies a mode of learning,and a social organization. I suppose originally discipleship or , one of a group of equals. It is from this concept that equality springs as […]

Lets just unpick that statement. I believe the aim of EDUCATION is to achieve the very best attainment for each individual , regardless of ability , but developing skills , knowledge and understanding to the utmost. In order to do this we need to ensure we also produce a sentient individual with a personal moral […]

I don’t want at this stage to reply directly to all the points you’ve made, but really to pick out and extend a couple of dilemmas that fall out from them . Firstly in this post Gender. I deliberately chose gender equality as an a priori without deliberately expanding on my understanding of this but […]

THIS really needs ultra-careful management. Doc’s quote-now, it sounds like the Victorian treadmill at first-totally pointless waste of time! But, thinking about it, this has potential. A little development, such as telling them all to number each piece of paper before they finish could be useful. Then, after number two gets out by rearranging all […]

Sorry, but I could not contemplate 15 others having their chances spoiled in an effort to accomodate one. Time-outs. Not practical in this day & age. Reason-anxious parents & child molester fears. Pity, because they can bring quite a few to realise the error of their ways by showing them that doing time, as it […]

The positive discipline idea-fine if the school doesn’t need different strokes for different folks. If it does, then simply don’t reward inappropriate behaviour, but given a token reward to every one else who behaves acceptably ie if they need to reach 500 points, 3 pts each. Academic? well, if GCSE’s etc are as course & […]