You should hear the swearing at Shafton Advanced Learning Centre, a mixed comprehensive school in Barnsley, Yorkshire...F-words, C-words, S-words - and that's just the teachers!
According to The Daily Telegraph, the school's 700 pupils were instructed to respond to a printed list of obscenities and expletives - the sort used by professional footballers, 'edgy' comedians and bilious TV drama producers. One parent who complained said the children, aged 11 to 14, were "going mad" shouting out foul language in their classrooms.
Another angry father who complained at the school office was shocked when the head teacher phoned him later to ask what the problem was (!). You have to wonder about this individual, who has not been named. Sir Michael Wilshaw, chief inspector of Ofsted, has described head teachers as 'often quite odd people'. You couldn't get any odder than this one.
Schools have a duty of care to ensure pupils' minds are enlightened rather than polluted by irresponsible teachers. The argument has been advanced that children are exposed to swearing as part of everyday life. That's hardly a reason for repeating it on the pretext of education. Young people come into daily contact with other forms of pollution - cigarette smoke for example. But schools don't give lessons in smoking.
Bad language is a crude substitute for an inadequate vocabulary. If children can learn enough good words they will have no need of bad ones.
