Little Nancy was doing her very best to keep calm despite the severe provocation of the fourth year (this was 1990) boys. Nancy was from Sierra Leone. The boys had said that she lived in a mud hut and that her Mum was a witch doctor. Her brand new liberal RE teacher was clumsily trying to come to her help saying that such language was racist and had no place in his classroom but the fact that Nancy's tormentors were African-Caribbean was confusing him too much and he was trying his inadequate best to respond to the demand that he should 'Stay out of it, sir - it's a black thing.'
Having spent thirteen years teaching in a South London comprehensive I knew that as soon as I started reading To Miss With Love, this woman knew what she was talking about so here is my list of reasons why despite her idiosyncratic views on industrial relations (see #10,11,20), and my being an officer of the NUT, Snuffy is a national treasure:
- Her posts ooze authenticity.
- She , like Maureen Stone, has high expectations of all her pupils.
- She refuses to adopt a victim mentality and scape goating in relation to race politics
- She is unafraid to say it as she sees it
- She has the measure of Diane bloody Abbot
- Despite, having never met her, I would feel absolutely delighted if my son attended any school that she was head of. Any school no matter which London borough or position in the league table.
4 comments:
Agreed on all. Except... who is Maureen Stone?
I read one of her books back in 1989/90 called The Education of The Black Child in Britain (1983) and although I can't remember the details it was full of sound common sense stuff. I was going to do an Amazon link but it seems like they haven't got a copy of it...
Was it G.K. Chesterton that said that the thing about common sense was that it's not that common?
Granted Miss writes an excellent blog but her anti union politics are terrifying.
But at least she cares about the children and hates new Labour
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