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Why keep a dog when you can bark yourself? That seemed to be the motto of keeping discipline in a lot of Thatcher and Major-era schools. It does cost money to hire G4S, (or Group 4 Security as it was called) back in the day, circa 1993. Remember the debacle when prisoners were champions and brilliant Houdini impersonators? Not to mention going to the top of the class (geddit?) for playing Hide and Seek on prison van journeys to the Crown Court. To have security guards around the school, not to mention strangers around the place, it would have filled a fill places in a school that was so close to closing down anyway by the local County Council to save surplus places on the school roll.
The talk of security guards turning my place of "work" (i.e. the place of education) into Fort Knox Comprehensive School (no school actually exists with this title) - this subject was actually came into conversation by our Headteacher in assembly one morning: the problem with graffiti and criminal damage on the outside of the school's main buildings, mostly during weekdays, evenings and holidays, so at least none of the pupils could be blamed, or not just the pupils anyway.
The Governor (aka the Head) had told her assembly congregation on the Monday morning after a weekend of unofficial Neil Buchanan-esque "Art Attack" murals painted on the "fabric" of the school buildings, (and their talents were not officially recognised by the Art teachers), to "call the local police" if we were "lucky" enough to catch a "spray artist" in the act; she also went onto say that the school would probably have to purchase CCTV equipment to identify the thievin' blighters, and perhaps, even, have security guards as well. Why not have barbed wire on the fences and have a few Rottweilers keeping watch as well? Grange Hill's Danny Kendall had made similar observations himself before his death.
They say, those who can do, those who can't teach - when applying for a job as a teacher of Mathematics - were security duties mentioned on the application form?, or was it just a basic "was it Cambridge where you got your PGCE from?" or "did you really get a police caution for making politically incorrect observations back in 1992?" One response could certainly be: "well, I didn't get my MA off a market stall", words spoken by Nick Smart in series 6 of a pre-Kendall Grange Hill. It's not just subjects they teach: it is also the way they should behave.
I watched a Panorama from the late 1990s that was about teachers leaving the profession: the three main reasons for quitting teaching was: A) the low pay; B) the extra work and long hours (ironic again, when they give pupils homework); and finally: C) the young people misbehaving, or I would regard as "an occupational hazard" which was the biggest reason for Sir and Miss finally professionally hanging their chalk or pen up and leaving the classroom for good. One of the many reasons for my own school refusal was for that very same reason; I refused to go to school due to the others misbehaving, but at the same time I didn't have an NUT to sob my eyes out to when I was upset and things went wrong. As for the "lower than low" pay, well, it felt like community service for myself. I noticed in that Panorama episode that one former teacher had even quit the profession in order to become a Police Constable.
Teachers and prison officers are always, if not often, like identical occupations to each other; the only difference is that a prison officer wears a uniform and a teacher does not (which is almost like double standards when pupils have to wear uniform and staff do not). Security guards are certainly like prison officers and the police. In addition to standing in front of a blackboard (or whiteboard in recent times) and teaching the relevant subject which was it said on the tin, they also seem to have an additional capacity of security guard.
Where else would you get assertively told to "get out" when you hate being outdoors at break time due to being bullied or even feeling uneasy at being forced to socialise when one has a social phobia? "Are you deaf? I said OUT!" said a familiar member of staff in an "Ivy Tilsley" assertive sort of way, doing her security guard impression for she was on duty that day. Why not get Anne Robinson in, and tell the unfortunate one: "you are the Weakest link - Goodbye"? Why she never got a job in teaching is a mystery in many ways. The staff can also feel like being the bullies at playtime as well; it makes detention feel like a good thing in lots of ways. I know that a lot of young people need discipline but it was a bit ridiculous at the time. I was a science monitor at break times for three years, and in addition to using my skills and talents to keep things in order in a science lab, it also meant that I didn't have to be socially "stranded" for 15 minutes in the yard, not knowing what to do and having to wait for the bell to go for the next lesson.
I have had to put up with a lot of rudeness within the system, mostly from the peer group, but some staff come into that bracket as well. Teachers are accused of being too negative, but I feel that they don't have to be more positive, but just try to be more neutral. As a civilian of the past 29 years, I see a different perspective to the "insider's" way of things - sometimes, it did feel as if I was in the army at times. Now, I tend to agree with they way that disicipline of today's young people in our schools - today's young people are tomorrow's adults, and there is only a couple of years' gap between leaving mainstream school and becoming and adult. And schools need to be secure, but do they really need security?
After all, writing this article is 500 times better than writing 500 lines in detention.
The talk of security guards turning my place of "work" (i.e. the place of education) into Fort Knox Comprehensive School (no school actually exists with this title) - this subject was actually came into conversation by our Headteacher in assembly one morning: the problem with graffiti and criminal damage on the outside of the school's main buildings, mostly during weekdays, evenings and holidays, so at least none of the pupils could be blamed, or not just the pupils anyway.
The Governor (aka the Head) had told her assembly congregation on the Monday morning after a weekend of unofficial Neil Buchanan-esque "Art Attack" murals painted on the "fabric" of the school buildings, (and their talents were not officially recognised by the Art teachers), to "call the local police" if we were "lucky" enough to catch a "spray artist" in the act; she also went onto say that the school would probably have to purchase CCTV equipment to identify the thievin' blighters, and perhaps, even, have security guards as well. Why not have barbed wire on the fences and have a few Rottweilers keeping watch as well? Grange Hill's Danny Kendall had made similar observations himself before his death.
They say, those who can do, those who can't teach - when applying for a job as a teacher of Mathematics - were security duties mentioned on the application form?, or was it just a basic "was it Cambridge where you got your PGCE from?" or "did you really get a police caution for making politically incorrect observations back in 1992?" One response could certainly be: "well, I didn't get my MA off a market stall", words spoken by Nick Smart in series 6 of a pre-Kendall Grange Hill. It's not just subjects they teach: it is also the way they should behave.
I watched a Panorama from the late 1990s that was about teachers leaving the profession: the three main reasons for quitting teaching was: A) the low pay; B) the extra work and long hours (ironic again, when they give pupils homework); and finally: C) the young people misbehaving, or I would regard as "an occupational hazard" which was the biggest reason for Sir and Miss finally professionally hanging their chalk or pen up and leaving the classroom for good. One of the many reasons for my own school refusal was for that very same reason; I refused to go to school due to the others misbehaving, but at the same time I didn't have an NUT to sob my eyes out to when I was upset and things went wrong. As for the "lower than low" pay, well, it felt like community service for myself. I noticed in that Panorama episode that one former teacher had even quit the profession in order to become a Police Constable.
Teachers and prison officers are always, if not often, like identical occupations to each other; the only difference is that a prison officer wears a uniform and a teacher does not (which is almost like double standards when pupils have to wear uniform and staff do not). Security guards are certainly like prison officers and the police. In addition to standing in front of a blackboard (or whiteboard in recent times) and teaching the relevant subject which was it said on the tin, they also seem to have an additional capacity of security guard.
Where else would you get assertively told to "get out" when you hate being outdoors at break time due to being bullied or even feeling uneasy at being forced to socialise when one has a social phobia? "Are you deaf? I said OUT!" said a familiar member of staff in an "Ivy Tilsley" assertive sort of way, doing her security guard impression for she was on duty that day. Why not get Anne Robinson in, and tell the unfortunate one: "you are the Weakest link - Goodbye"? Why she never got a job in teaching is a mystery in many ways. The staff can also feel like being the bullies at playtime as well; it makes detention feel like a good thing in lots of ways. I know that a lot of young people need discipline but it was a bit ridiculous at the time. I was a science monitor at break times for three years, and in addition to using my skills and talents to keep things in order in a science lab, it also meant that I didn't have to be socially "stranded" for 15 minutes in the yard, not knowing what to do and having to wait for the bell to go for the next lesson.
I have had to put up with a lot of rudeness within the system, mostly from the peer group, but some staff come into that bracket as well. Teachers are accused of being too negative, but I feel that they don't have to be more positive, but just try to be more neutral. As a civilian of the past 29 years, I see a different perspective to the "insider's" way of things - sometimes, it did feel as if I was in the army at times. Now, I tend to agree with they way that disicipline of today's young people in our schools - today's young people are tomorrow's adults, and there is only a couple of years' gap between leaving mainstream school and becoming and adult. And schools need to be secure, but do they really need security?
After all, writing this article is 500 times better than writing 500 lines in detention.