Pardon me?

7/11/05

Whilst on our visit to the in-laws we were told a story about our niece's school that just typifies a lot of what's wrong about our society.

Out niece has been brought up with manners and respect for others. During a recent parents’ night they were asked to discourage her from saying things like ‘please’ and ‘thankyou’ as it was making the other children think she was ‘posh’ and not talk to her!

Pardon me? Stop setting a good example to the other kids? Worse, encouraged by the teacher. Isn’t it part of a primary school teacher’s job to help teach manners to their pupils? It’s certainly not part of her job to recommend that her manners be removed so the other children don’t feel inferior. The teacher should be insisting that the pupils use please and thankyou within her class. Just because their parents don’t bother their arses doesn’t mean she shouldn’t. Or is it just that she doesn’t use manners much herself.