Clarke’s school days won’t help
I’m not quite sure what lies behind Charles Clarke’s latest education proposals, but I have my suspicions as to why he is so keen on school uniforms and house systems.
As every teacher knows, a common response to what we do in schools is: "Why don’t you do it like that anymore? It worked perfectly in my day!" Is this what Clarke is after? Is he hankering after his own school days?
The problem I have with his proposals has little to do with the actual proposals themselves. As one of a raft of measures, uniforms may well increase the sense of community and pride in a school.
However, I am not convinced that making a family buy a blazer will automatically improve discipline or raise standards in the classroom. Also, most schools have a perfectly good system of organising pupils by year groups and don’t need to go back to a house system.
Would Clarke prefer us to move from the "bog standard comprehensive" to the "bog standard pseudo-grammar school"? I guess that is the reason why I have my doubts about his plans: are we talking about improving learning or about appealing to middle class voters?
A secondary school teacher in London
Support children of criminals
We welcome any government plan to help the children of prisoners, providing it is done in a way that does not stigmatise them.
Children with a parent in prison face terrible disadvantages, including an increased risk of becoming offenders. When a father is imprisoned, mothers face all the problems of deprivation suffered by many single parents as well as the stigma of having a partner in jail. When mothers are imprisoned, their children suffer the trauma and disruption of separation and many have to go into care.
If targeting means providing genuine support for the children of prisoners, as well as assistance for their mothers, it could help to reduce the children’s chances of becoming delinquent.
But if it stigmatises families or labels children as potential criminals, it could reinforce the risk that they will follow in their parents’ footsteps.
Paul Cavadino,
Chief executive of crime reduction charity Nacro
