The following letter is a reply to this article in the Yorkshire Post:
Children who need to learn a vital lesson in discipline
Reply: From: John G D, East Morton, Keighley.
Yorkshire Post (12 Jan 06)
NICK Seaton employs a mixture of non-sequiturs and wilful misinterpretations to push his view on disciplining children (Yorkshire Post, January 12).
He obviously has no more idea than I have, regarding the number of parents disagreeing with Trinity Academy's policy, but he resorts to saying "almost certainly a minority".
The important thing is that the number is "significant" in that they have made enough waves to have their views heard.
The former head, Tony Brookes, appears to agree with them.
Mr Seaton ignores the complexity of the real world and the mixed messages that it sends out. Are the messages that Jeremy Clarkson sends out, loud and clear, more or less appropriate than his for the kids of Thorne? The churches and the Government may be telling them to behave in one way, yet they see very different attitudes on Big Brother and they see the apparently glamorous lifestyle of its participants.
In the past, there was a system to impose authority on all individuals, not just children, for the common good. Unfortunately, that system collapsed in the Prague Spring along with the Berlin Wall.
Authoritarian systems have failed in the past, which is why modern teachers use strategies like circle time to negotiate with pupils, the vast majority of whom do want to learn and do behave reasonably, so it is relatively easy to achieve a satisfactory consensus.
Far better to have a cheerful agreement than a sullen compliance with imposed authority.