by Tarot

Created on: January 20, 2009

School students have always been distracted from their studies, for younger children it has always been the job of teachers and parents to focus their attention and teach them the skills they will need as adults but as they get older most students would focus themselves as they recognized the importance of gaining qualifications or gaining a good reference.

Traditionally teachers would punish students who day dreamed, messed around, were violent or were caught trying to skip classes and the parents would likewise punish them at home if the matter was serious enough to inform the parents or if they received a letter saying a child had not been in school without permission. Those punishments would teach a child what is acceptable behaviour, would keep them focused on their lessons and teach the important lesson that if you break society's laws you are punished!

As students got older they desired greater freedom and looked forward to entering the adult world but as they do so most recognized the need to adapt to that world, most want money and comfort and to get them you normally need a good job. A good job either required a good set of qualifications so you can progress to further education or good references from your teachers so you can get a decent job as an unskilled worker or onto an apprenticeship. This gave everyone one of two reasons to focus on their school work, because they wanted to progress further in education or because they would need a reference from their teachers.

Not everyone learnt these lessons; Some had other dreams which they believed wouldn't require either, like playing football professionally, and others just were not interested in adapting to society but they were a tiny minority who were normally kept in check by the fear of the punishments.

The situation has changed!

The punishments provided by teachers in schools are a joke and if a teacher attempts to increase their severity they are immediately in trouble with parents and child rights campaigners. I recently brought a group of teenagers into to school one lunchtime would had filmed themselves attacking a student in the playground on a mobile phone. I took them to a senior teacher expecting them to be punished (I'm a lunchtime supervisor at the school) and he was more concerned that a child had been photographed in school than by the attack, they were sent on their way a few minutes later with a warning and told to erase the video. The video is now on U-tube!

The rights given to children

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