Friday 28 October 2011

Behind Every Lamp Post

Via Josie Appleton, this truly makes me weep.

‘Our two boys attend a grammar school in Devon (every possible Ofsted accolade) where they were told in assembly that with the construction of a new block they were not to speak to any builder, and that no builder must speak to them or he will face dismissal. How can we possibly hope to build any kind of better (or 'big') society with such an frightening lack of trust, not to mention courtesy? The school's instructions sound like something out of a 1950s sci-fi nightmare.’
Indeed.

This is something I've experienced first hand, or at least Mrs P has, and I sincerely feel for the kids who are forced to suffer the filthy-minded fears of petrified adults.

A few weeks ago, Mrs P was driving home in the rain, and saw one of the little Ps (the girl) walking back from school with her two friends. She stopped and offered them a lift the short distance back to our house and theirs, we're talking three quarters of a mile at most.

Little P jumped in, as did one of her friends, but the third declined. Mrs P pointed out that she was getting drenched and that it was no problem, but the girl refused by explaining that her parents had told her she wasn't allowed to get into a stranger's car.

Now, that's good advice usually, but only if coupled with common sense. Her friend getting in with her Mum - a woman she sees every morning when she knocks at the door for little P - should surely not set alarm bells ringing very loudly at all.

Now, one could say that she's just a bit thick, but when an 11 year old is surrounded by constant hysterical warnings of imminent danger - despite the almost negligible chance of it actually happening - who can truly blame her for being so confused?

The case above is hideous for the awful grounding it gives the adults of our future, as Josie rightly conveys.

And the fact that this Devon school prohibits any interaction between contractors and kids – even a ‘hello’, which is surely just good manners! – shows how ordinary interaction between adults and children has become contaminated.
More than that, it shows that those who worry to the extreme about dangers that are largely in their own mind, are actively harming the development of their own children.

And that's the very evil part of this. That because of the parents' entirely selfish approach of eliminating all possible risk - for their own peace of mind - their kids must be scared at every turn and instructed that the world, and everyone in it, is just out to abuse them.

The school in question should be educating children that, you know, not all adults are potential child molesters (in fact, a negligible minority are), and that speaking with strangers is a common aspect of everyday life which one must learn at some point. It should also be part of their remit to teach that manners are extremely important, and that ignoring - or even not being allowed to hear - a friendly hello, is rude and anti-social.

Why should our kids grow up fearful of the world at large because of the selfish risk-terrified minority who see sex and molestation in even the most innocent of interactions.


11 comments:

Katabasis said...

Utterly depressing.

And very much reflects my own feelings.

I'm very wary of playing with my young cousins or my little nephew because of this bollocks. And worse, the reticence seems to be built in now, rather than something I actively think about first.

RB said...

Completely predictable from the utter dross who now have our childrens' future in their hands. These peaople are. almost without exception, unable to exercise any common sense and are tied to a pathetic view that adults are dangerous as a default positon.

My boy (15) goes to rugby practice every wednesday night at 7.30. This time of year it is dark when he leaves and darker when he gets back at about 9 p.m. The rugby ground is less than half a mile away.

I STILL have to reassure him every week that he will be fine and wont be kidnapped or buggered on the way home.

This is all down to those that have "educated" him over the preceding 10 years. CUnts, all of them.

Even though my boy is forecast for As in all of his subjects and his reports are always excellent I STILL get (usually female) teachers phoning me at home to tell me that he wasn't quiet enough when asked in a lesson today, or that he was a bit unruly in one class. FOr fuck's sake. We now have teachers that are so inept at controlling their own classes that they phone parents to whinge about things that, in my day, merited lines, a detention, or some other punishment (usually a thick ear or a bit of chalk whizzing at you and without fail hiting you inthe face). I just tell them to give him a detention and ask them to stop bothering me with details of issues that any competent teacher would be able to control in his/her own classroom. Their reaction is as if I am a freak who is "unhelpful" and "obstructive" and who has killed and eaten teachers. They make me piss blood these useless fuckers. What a bunch of fucking faggots, the lot of them.

I am fighting a losing battle trying to tell my youngest boy that he is normal, what he does is normal, that not everyone is trying to kill him and bugger his dead body, and that he should ignore the pathetic wasters that whinge about the fact that he squeaked once in class today. We used to call it horseplay. Now it is considered to be subversive behaviour.

What a bunch of useless thick cunts they are.

Anonymous said...

Builders moved in to a plot next door to a house where little Rosie lived, a new house was to be built and would take about 13 weeks to complete.
After a couple of days 6 year old Rosie visited the site and talked to the builders who after a while became quite friendly and looked upon Rosie as a friend, they started to give her little jobs around the site and her enthusiastic endeavours led them to believe it would be a good idea to make up a pay packet just like the big builders.
Rosie was so pleased with her very own pay packet that she asked her mummy what she should do with it, If I were you Rosie I would open an account with the local bank and save it for the future.
Off goes Rosie to the bank and on producing the money was asked by the bank clerk where she had got the money, I'm a builder said Rosie full of pride.
and what are you building asked the clerk, a house said Rosie chest puffed out.
and what are you working on tomorrow enquired the clerk,
the bathroom said Rosie.
And will it be finished on time said the clerk.
Only if that shower of shit that call themselves suppliers deliver the fucking tiles on time, said Rosie.

Maybe the head has heard this story.

Anonymous said...

The remaining child was putting herself at greater risk by walking home alone and not getting in the car with Mrs P. Should Mrs P have therefore turfed out little P's first friend into the rain? A moral dilemma?

Jeff Wood said...

Dick, you may remember I am in village Italy.

It is virtually compulsory to greet everyone, of any age, when you pass them, and the children are not backward in coming forward.

Even the two village perverts are treated with friendly politeness, given that their beatings were a few years ago.

Britain doesn't improve, does it?

Dick Puddlecote said...

Katabasis: I recognise that feeling. Not nice, is it? Decent people are being scared of even acknowledging kids for fear of being branded as perverts. We used to call people who saw sex in even the most innocent of situations 'sex cases'. Now they run policy.

RB: Great rant, enjoyed that immensely (and agree natch) :)

Dick Puddlecote said...

Anon @ 17:49: It's a new one to me. I'll pass that on in the office Monday.

Anon @ 17:55: Good point, well made. A perfect example of 'damned if you don't, damned if you do'.

Jeff: Indeed. And then we hear a barrage of noise about how British kids are rude and devoid of manners. Go figure. I really do believe the drive for elimination of all possible risk is extremely evil.

Jeff Wood said...

If I may butt in again, something came to me while I walked the dog.

For a few years before I left the UK last February, I found myself, increasingly, the object of friendly attention from 15 to 18-year-old teenagers, especially girls.

Now, this was an unexpected development in the life of a not-pretty man, to be engaged in conversation by young lassies whose grans had not even noticed him in the 1960s and 1970s.

(They do now: I took up ballroom dancing, with some small facility. The lines form on the left.)

When the flirting started - is it a natural skill in girls? - I had to do a bit of thinking.

I reached the tentative conclusion that the minxes were practising. For lack of male friends between them and their fathers' generation, probably for the reasons you post Dick, they went elsewhere.

The affable chap who was always out walking the dog, and usually had a smile and a greeting, was a man they could agree was harmless, and, out of sight of the parents, they could get to know and deal with.

Then, it began to happen with girls I met outside the old village, and I began to be puzzled again. Perhaps I give off the right vibes, I dunno, but it did seem to me that some youngsters were setting out to overcome the scares, and join adult life.

Anonymous said...

Pure Frankfurt School, suspicion and division between generations is a Fabian socialist psy-op sponsored by the British Labour Party, circa 1960's

Look it up, your entire society is being socially re-engineered by just a handful a people:

Alchohol cheaper than bottled water.

Trashing the heritage and history of the indigenous people.

Denying the existence of said People.

Media working for the government.

etc,.

Steve

Anonymous said...

I experienced a society where a father had to be carefull what he said to his son,where you never expessed an opinion to a stranger,
where you had to get council permission to visit a public bar.
Where your Union and Boss were the same. I saw the architects of this
"Utopian" nightmare lose their
grip and they slid like serpents to the West,to sow their seeds of control mentality on to wishy washy social liberals and iffy
conservatives.Yes , the perverse
ideologists I saw in the DDR(East
Germany)before their wall tumbled,
they have now spread their tumour
in the soft yellow under belly of
the unaware apathetic Western Masses
Surgical removal is the only cure
for this malignant growth
not words ,spoken ,written or transmitted.Pacifism and appeasement are not an option.

Sensa Mauro

Anonymous said...

Now children, some working class builders will be in school next week. You must not speak with them. They will be coarse and may use bad language and may not even speak English properly. Please ensure that you look down your noses at them so they continue to know their place. Thenk yew, assembly dismissed."