Hard Lines

I've been a bit naughty with my blips of late - a few lazy days, too many similar skeleton trees, some careless typos in my comments - so, in accordance with the latest pronouncements from our esteemed Education Secretary, I decided to set myself a "tough but proportionate" punishment of writing lines.

I'm pretty sure that Mr Gove will be surprised to learn that doing so has not left me any more motivated to mend my blipping ways, any more than it did in my dim and distant days as a Grammar School boy in the 60s when teachers set me lines for minor misdemeanours!

His comments on behaviour have got up my nose because, in my 30+ years of experience in teaching the majority of teachers manage the behaviour of their students very effectively for most of the time and the vast majority of students behave well most of the time.

For the relatively small number of teachers who have difficulty controlling student behaviour issuing threats of punishment and sanctions is not the answer (very often they already do this and then don't actually carry them out ); what they need is more training and support in employing effective behaviour management strategies in the first place so that punishment isn't needed - preventing the cause of the problem is far more effective than traeting the symptoms.

For the very small number of students who regularly behave badly the causes are nearly always social or emotional and no amount of writing lines is going to solve these problems and adjust their behaviour.

Finally, Mr Gove says thet "Writing lines is tedious, monotonous and boring and a perfect punishment for bad behaviour". As a former English teacher, I am deeply concerned that students should come to see being asked to write as a form of punishment; hardly the way to encourage a love of words, language and writing.

What makes me want to improve my blipping is the encouragement, praise, help and advice I receive from fellow blippers, those days when I feel I've been successful and achieved something, not the threat of drudgery. I believe the same holds true in education. But I'm afraid Mr Gove lives in a different age.

Rant over! And I feel a lot better for getting that off my chest!