Some years ago, one of my teaching colleagues decided to quit fighting the battle against tired and lazy seniors in her English IV class. She included in her course description a statemen that students would be permitted to sleep no more than 10 minutes per 90 minute class. The result? Students who had never fallen asleep in class felt compelled to take a nap in their English class? Why? Because what had been intended as a way of limiting a problem behavior was perceived by the students as granting them the right to engage in the behavior.

Which leads to this situation in England.

A secondary school is to allow pupils to swear at teachers - as long as they don't do so more than five times in a lesson. A running tally of how many times the f-word has been used will be kept on the board. If a class goes over the limit, they will be 'spoken' to at the end of the lesson.

The astonishing policy, which the school says will improve the behaviour of pupils, was condemned by parents' groups and MPs yesterday. They warned it would backfire.

Parents were advised of the plan, which comes into effect when term starts next week, in a letter from the Weavers School in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.
Assistant headmaster Richard White said the policy was aimed at 15 and 16-year-olds in two classes which are considered troublesome.

"Within each lesson the teacher will initially tolerate (although not condone) the use of the f-word (or derivatives) five times and these will be tallied on the board so all students can see the running score," he wrote in the letter .

"Over this number the class will be spoken to by the teacher at the end of the lesson."

Parents called the rule 'wholly irresponsible and ludicrous'.

This is not a plan to eliminate the use of the particular word – it is permission for the kids to use the word in question. Kids are going to feel that they now have the right to use the word. And since the consequence of going over the permitted limit of five is that the class (as a group) will be “spoken to by the teacher,” there is effectively no consequence for spewing out the profane term in question.

I can hear that discussion at the end of class – the teacher reminds students that the word is inappropriate in a classroom setting, to which someone responds “whatever you effin’ say, teach!”

If this were my school and they persisted in following through with this stupid policy, my response would be “I effin’ quit!”

Posted by: Greg at 10:20 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 442 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Reminds me of somebody. A sure sign of intelligence is when a person says the "F" word at the beginning of the sentence and at the end for a dramatic closing.

Imbeciles they are with that stupid policy.

Posted by: mcconnell at Mon Aug 29 11:49:55 2005 (CQ3Yp)

2 Hope you recognize that my use of the term "effing" here is for ironic effect.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Aug 29 12:54:19 2005 (yqECe)

3 Yes, I know. We know who those Effers are who like to eff everybody in the back just because they effing don't like them because of a party affiliation. How effing unbelievable.




Ok, wittle boys and girls...mind your potty mouths.

Posted by: mcconnell at Tue Aug 30 13:21:44 2005 (CQ3Yp)

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