No place for bullying

Every school, we are assured, is required by law to devise and 'operate' an anti-bullying policy. The number of Head teachers lining up to state that, ‘this school does not tolerate bullying,’ is matched only by those eager to point out that, ‘every school has its ‘fair’ share of bullying.’ And thank Christ too, if the little innocents that are being readied for the real world are going to stand the slightest chance of surviving out there, in the grown-up's world. This way some at least, with the capacity to evade this 'noble' yet almost unenforceable goal, may learn a fair deal about the ‘successful’ application of this much used tool in the British workplace.



Thanks to DVIDSHUB's photostream

I would imagine that you, like me, chuckle conspiratorially along with each new government initiative. There are, after all, enough of these- like raindrops amid the monsoon season- to keep us busy, should we regard them as ‘chuckling’ material. The public sector ‘initiatives’ alone are enough to almost perpetually keep us doubled up.

I have considered, rather more thoroughly, however, the ‘initiative’ (not really the right word, is it?) of attempting to ‘stamp out’ bullying in our schools, especially in the light of that claimed attempt to ‘fully equip’ our children for adulthood.



Much thanks to Joriel "Joz" Jimenez's photostream

You see, what we actually have here is an impasse; in this case an insurmountable Everest of a task! It need not be, but unless the old ‘enemy’, honesty, is permitted to re-enter the wider debate any achievable solution can only ever be an illusion.

The thrusting entrepreneurial race, a daily more 'revered' minority within 'our society', are far more direct creatures, in this respect. They would endeavour to 'misunderstand' the current societal ‘need’ for such an oxymoronic pretence. Imagine, were such a thing possible, a 'free-flowing', 'open', 'honest' and 'bully-free' monetarist state; where could one even begin to dig out the flaws from this kind of false ‘aspiration?’



Nicely illustrated by psilver (silverph)'s photstream

Would it be naïve to suggest that we might start by analysing the relative methods of motivation that are routinely employed within 'our society'? I can sense that ol’ ‘relative size’ issue raising its head yet again. ‘Remuneration commensurate with the efforts, application and achievements of the individual,’ it all sounds so reasonable doesn’t it? But, let’s look a little more closely at this ‘ideal,’ shall we?

On the one hand we have those banker chaps- almost bankrupted the continent, didn’t they?- with the covert protection of our 'democratically elected' (that doesn’t sound quite right) leader, arguing so vehemently that these ‘role models’ should be free to determine their own reward system. Correct me please, but I thought I’d read somewhere that that idea had failed quite spectacularly just a short while ago.

On the other hand we have those employed to educate our children and grandchildren, set to be judged biannually by Ofsted and again annually through their relative placings in National League Tables. On top of this we have the spiteful misnomer of the General Teaching Council, applying themselves continually to the rather saturated task of finding continual fault with sections of the profession, a tabloid media that has made a virtual vocation of condemning anything public sector and a government whose first ‘commitment’ to the nation’s educational system was to appoint, as Head of Ofsted, a man who, with a heart fashioned from solid cold flint, seemed to defy the fundamental criteria for even being accepted into the outer fringes of the human race. I wonder if the workers in the teaching profession will also be permitted to write their own pay cheques? I’m guessing not.



Perfect illustrated by spierzchala's photostream

‘Remuneration commensurate with the efforts, application and achievements of the individual,’ discuss!