We know standards for juvenile behavior in schools have slipped here in the U.S., but apparently England has us beat in that department. Apparently, swearing has become so pervasive in UK schools that in some of them it's now all but part of the curriculum.
According to another Daily Mail article from some weeks ago, kids in at least one UK school district (a rougher or lower-class one, I assume) are now allowed to cuss in class. And I'm not just talking about the occasional "jackass" or "damn." I mean the Full Monty of curse words... You know the one. It starts with an "F."
The new policy - which is designed to IMPROVE teenagers' behavior (exactly how, I couldn't say) - allows 15- and 16-year-olds to drop the F-bomb up to 5 times per class, with a running tally kept on the chalkboard... The flipside of the program are what school officials are calling "praise postcards."
These are notes sent home to alert parents to their kids' GOOD behavior, instead of the traditionally scathing missives when a child cuts up in class (or cuts class).
Hmmm. Discouraging poor behavior by allowing it, and making up a disciplinary system which treats good behavior as an exception to be rewarded, rather than a standard not to be let down.... Sounds like the U.S. criminal justice system, don't you think? And we both know how well that works.
I wonder how long it'll be before this model hits our schools. They already do most everything else backward...
Ruing Brittania, William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
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