At the chalkface A sense of exclusion
“WE NEED to know what is going on in these people’s lives and why they can feel such a sense of exclusion,” says Boris Johnson. There’s an election brewing for London’s Mayor. Time for some moral panic, folk devils and that old oxymoronic chestnut, Conservative compassion – with whizzo photo op. Bozza is
pondering the Riots and causes thereof. Original sin? Heatwaves? Crisps? Insufficient Latin? What about teachers? That’s more like it. Boring teachers. Don’t they cause truants – who join gangs, smoke skunk and burn down half of Croydon? Probably. Bozza favours empathy. It plays better. We need to know “these people”. These feral oinks. We need to feel their pain. But where are the bunking blighters? In Westbourne Park. Look! There’s one! Over there. Jack Sheppard. He looks the part. Hood, fag, cadaverous visage, sitting by the Grand Union Canal, gazing at drifting Stella cans and belly-up rodents at 11 o’clock of a cold May drizzle. What a charmingly Dickensian varmint! “Shouldn’t he be in your
English class? Getting literate?” Jack Sheppard rolls a ciggy. “Where are the Rozzers?
Special Needs? PRUs?” Erm... you cut them. Bozza prods the malnourished
fellow, a photogenic little scamp, vote-winningly haggard. “Shouldn’t you be in school,
young fellow?” Jack’s blank. Inhales ciggy. “Drugs I shouldn’t wonder. Skunk!” Indeed. How bad is the curriculum?
He’s bunking my lesson for this? Surely my riveting routine about the conditional tense is better than drowned rats? “Why do you fellows
feel so excluded?” Jack’s felt like this
since he was seven. He
was okay in primary school with that nice Ms Daffodil, but his brothers beat him up when he came back with a book. Thus in a moment
are little lives lost. So he kept failing tests. Again and again. You try it. You feel rubbish. It’s what the tests are for. Then
in Big School he got internally excluded, his default mental state. Then he got externally included. Then Inclusion excluded him. It gave him a rather piercing
sense of exclusion. Then he was suspended for bunking, which is why he’s on this bench being prodded by a potential mayor from Eton. Bozza seeks more answers. Does the fellow have a single mother or no father? That kind of thing. Nothing that a bit of Latin and marching couldn’t fix. Jack stays stum. Snappers are summoned.
Smile! Hug! Snap! Empathy! Marvellous! “Bozza teaches Ovid to Orphan.” That’ll do it! No more riots. Four more years.
• Ian Whitwham is a former secondary school teacher.
News
Students publish manual to help parents manage teens
By Emma Lee-Potter
Teachers and parents spend their lives trying to work out how teenagers’ minds work. But now two Surrey
6th-formers have lifted the lid on 21st century teens by writing a new guide for parents on how to look after adolescents. Louise Bedwell and Megan
Lovegrove, who are both 17-year- old students at Nonsuch High School for Girls in Cheam, won their publishing contract after entering a creative writing competition. After receiving an authors’
advance of £500, they spent six months researching their book. Entitled, Teenagers Explained:
A Manual for Parents by Teenagers, the book tackles everything from social networking to drugs. The two girls reckon that three
things are key to understanding teenagers – communication, understanding and compromise. “We wanted it to be a real ‘tell
it like it is’ manual from teenagers’ perspectives,” said Louise. “Teenagers can feel awkward
and self-conscious and that can make it difficult for them to talk about sensitive issues so they end up bottling things up, which makes them stressed and moody. “It can lead to those awful
Helping hands: Louise (right) and Megan, both 17, have published a guide for parents
tense moments and stand-offs, usually followed by big emotional explosions which end up in blazing rows. Parents need to read the signs – there are times to talk and times not to. But teens also have to realise that their parents are usually only asking out of concern and in your best interest.” Teenagers Explained: A Manual
for Parents by Teenagers by Louise Bedwell and Megan Lovegrove is published by White Ladder Press and costs £9.99.
Top tips for parents • Understand that your teen is a different person from you, with different views and interests. Don’t try to force them to always agree with you.
• Support us emotionally, whether we need a big bear hug or someone to moan to.
• Don’t try and dictate our lives. Be there to guide us through. • Don’t laugh at your teen, whether at their choice of clothes, the way they act, or the fact that everything is one big drama.
• Lastly, cliché, but it will get better. Every nice, civilised person you know was once a moody teenager.
FINAL THE 16
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE BIG VOICE FILM
Thirty-six films made by young people throughout UK schools and colleges are being showcased online as part of BT’s Big Voice competition - part of its Education Programme supporting the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The ideas for the films, covering issues like eating disorders, disabilities, homophobia, teenage pregnancy, bullying, drink driving and litter as seen from a young person’s perspective came from youngsters, aged between 11 and 19.
The 36 films were chosen from more than 100 submissions from across the UK. They each received a £1,000 grant from BT to produce their film and were partnered with film students at local universities and colleges who took the lead on the film production.
A ‘People’s Choice’ winner will be awarded and you can go online and vote for your favourite film at
www.bt.com/bigvoice
SecEd • May 3 2012
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