Cambridge High School teacher MURRAY FEAST* defends the standing down of a student for a "sexually offensive" essay.
It is hard to set classroom standards when, for example, the business world uses sex to sell. If students can see soft porn on television, is it any wonder that some now want to cover their exercise books with soft-porn pictures?
Despite believing in individual expression, I think it is right to ask a student: "Would the principal accept that picture of a g-stringed model in a come-hither pose on the front of your English book?" Students need to know what is appropriate. Would a model in underwear be okay? When different people have differing opinions, I might well go to a higher authority to decide.
I also expect high standards of behaviour in any school where I teach English.
Suppose I set a writing task for my students. To encourage creativity, I might supply a starter or an interesting picture. Many teenagers can read something sexual into any picture. If they can use a rocket picture to write a hot love scene, I rely on their sense of what is appropriate when they come to write.
Boozing, smoking dope and having sex are all within the experience of some of my students. Does that make them appropriate topics? If I make a judgment call, what should I do if they simply ignore me?
Regulations require a school to have a formal discipline system that is clear and fair. If, as a classroom teacher, I need to use that system when dealing with a student, there is a procedure.
Students can expect greater consequences each time they offend. Therefore, students might expect a "big" punishment for a "small" offence simply because of their history. I would not see ignoring my instruction as "small".
That word "small" reminds me of the broken-windows policy of the New York Police Department. The NYPD enforced a tough policy of dealing with "minor" crimes and got a dramatic decline in "major" crime. Perhaps there is a message here for some school administrators.
Some people might say a student's essay provides the perfect opportunity for the teacher to conduct a lesson on human biology. But I am an English teacher. I am not legally allowed to have such a discussion.
In a human biology class, that suggestion might work, but I want to get on with the core business of English teaching - helping children to improve their thinking, reading and writing.
Of course, while many teenagers see sex in anything, some commentators have suggested that the choice of essay topics might be the real problem. That seems to be a simple way of removing responsibility from the writer. It reminds me of the argument that the gun is the killer, not the shooter. It ignores the fact that writers have a choice about what they write.
Finally, and thinking about choice, I send my own teenage son to Cambridge High School because there are expectations of good behaviour and academic excellence.
I choose to teach in a school where a strong discipline system exists for the good of most students. I choose to teach in a school where there has been a dramatic decline in student suspensions this year. I choose to teach in a school where young teachers are supported by senior management.
I choose to teach in a no-nonsense school where the endless challenge of dealing with some inappropriate behaviour has not been put in the too-hard basket.
And if some people in the Cambridge community want an official review of our school policies, I say bring it on.
* Murray Feast has taught at Cambridge High School for 11 years, full time and part time.
No-nonsense standards make a school
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