The case for corporal punishment in schools is made by this retired teacher – Yorkshire Post letters

From: Mervyn Jackson, Windmill Rise, Belper.
How should discipline be enforced in the classroom?How should discipline be enforced in the classroom?
How should discipline be enforced in the classroom?

AS a retired member of NASUWT, I was interested in the remarks made by the general secretary. Chris Keates rightly stated that teachers should be able to go to work without the expectancy of being verbally or physically abused and that pupil indiscipline is a major concern.

When I started teaching in the early 1970s, indiscipline usually amounted to talking in class without permission. The behaviour portrayed in your recent articles would have been the stuff of X-rated movies.

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In those days the union was renowned for its support of corporal punishment and, when it became evident that this would be abolished, the union demanded that appropriate punishment should be put in its place. This did not happen and we now have a situation where any kind of punishment is frowned upon.

Teachers are not even allowed to raise their voices and some pupils take advantage of the situation. One mantra that came along was ‘ignore bad behaviour and reward good behaviour’. I imagine this idea surfaced because educational psychologists didn’t know what else to do. Some said that corporal punishment doesn’t work because it is bullying and ‘bullying begets bullying’.

The fact that it was a deterrent to bad behaviour and hardly ever had to be used was not taken into account.

We now have a situation where pupils bully the teachers and ‘experts’ are left scratching their heads as to the reason why. We will never go back to corporal punishment but, until someone comes up with a behavioural management scheme that really works for everyone, the situation can only get worse (if that is at all possible).

Home rule for the English

From: J Jordan, Lumley Gardens, Castleford.

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ALONG with the crisis besetting NHS England, the cause of the crisis in the under funding and poor quality of education in England lies firmly with the Government.

It is English taxpayers who fund the UK, but who are the last consideration of the British Government when it comes to the provision of services and infrastructure for England?

None of the issues reflecting a poor quality of life for many in England today, from child poverty to health and environmental issues, will be resolved until England has equal democratic rights with the rest of Britain, giving us control of our own taxation and spending through our own English governance.

It will only happen if the people of England want it to. That is because there are those in the British establishment and media who oppose a free and independent England.

Taking the Michael

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From: Michael J Robinson, Park Lane, Berry Brow, Huddersfield.

SINCE reading about the alum extraction around the North Yorkshire coast in Andrew Vine’s feature (The Yorkshire Post, April 20), I have failed to find support my long held belief that this was the source of the expression ‘Taking coals to Newcastle’.

Urine was collected around London as a source of the ammonia used in the textile dyeing industry. I had heard that when coal had been unloaded from ships in London, they transported London’s waste to Yorkshire on the emptied coal ships and sailors would cover their embarrassment by claiming to be transporting coal north.

I also failed to find confirmation that the Earth rotates more slowly when the leaves come out in the northern hemisphere, but I believe it is true, as would anyone who has ever picked up a bag of leaves cleared from the garden. Multiply this across Russia and North America, and internet confirmation is hardly necessary.

Too many people in UK

From: Martin Powell, Woodacre Green, Bardsey.

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JUST how big must the population of our country be allowed to become before the pressure becomes totally unbearable?

Traffic regularly stalling, gridlock in growth, schools bulging and teachers are resigning and heading off to countries where population count is taken more seriously.

Doctors and nurses already head to foreign pastures by the bus load. The national debt is close to exploding, our ability to feed ourselves is declining by the day, there’s talk of water rationing and what is happening to the rubbish accumulating now that other countries are refusing to accept so much of it?

Astonishingly, hardly any of this is the fault of local councils.

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The decisions that are crippling our country are nearly all made in London.

Over the past few decades, democracy has systematically being withdrawn. And when it comes to global warming, the decisions made in London have become those of a major contributor to the problem.

Recently in their desperation, the Ukrainians might have voted for a comedian but I believe what we are looking for is something different – a breath of fresh air and plain, common sense.

Grayling goes off the rails

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

TO be fair, Chris Grayling never ceases to outclass himself (Tom Richmond, The Yorkshire Post, April 23). At least his diatribe on the, somewhat illusory, use of metrication on road signs might mean that he’s leaving the railways alone.

Perhaps his reference to “Schedule 18 Part 3 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016” could prove useful for insomniacs; less harmful than tablets perhaps?