This has been opened up by a Tweet. This is what KT Hopkins actually said on Twitter.
Mums hearts are broken by school bullies. Yet schools continue to support these animals and ignore those keen to learn. Let me at them.
The Telegraph had said:
Michael Gove: teachers should punish children with litter duty, lines and more.
I don’t know what planet either of them are on, but I did take some satisfaction out of the video doing the rounds on Twitter of Michael Gove falling on his jacksy.
I could whack myself with a long wooden stick, or sit with my mouth open in horror at how I think the things that come out of these two people’s mouths really need to be projectily vomited in the general direction of the nearest waste paper bin. What bothers me about the self imposed upper echelons of our society, who clearly think the rest of us are the dirt under their fingernails, isn’t what they say so much, as how it makes me FEEL.
- I FEEL angry that Katie Hopkins is so nasty about almost everyone apart from herself.
- I FEEL angry for all the struggling kids at school whose behaviour escalates as they are unsupported, but who will get more lines instead of help, or even worse, be humiliated by picking up their classmakes litter. How to trash a child’s self-esteem is more what I’d call the sanctions mooted.
- I FEEL sad for Katie Hopkins family. How awful to have a mother who thinks the rest of us are so crap at everything.
- I FEEL incredulous that Katie Hopkins can find it in herself to be so nasty about children.
I want to take Katie’s statement and break it down:
Mums hearts are broken by school bullies. Yet schools continue to support these animals and ignore those keen to learn. Let me at them.
- Mums hearts are broken by school bullies. How does that happen then? Who cares what mums hearts are? It’s the kids that count.
- Schools continue to support. Well, yes, that is their job. Each child is a living, breathing thing that deserves a chance.
- Animals – well, all I can say about that one from Katie, is “what you say is what you are.”
- Let me at them. Please, please do go and take some classes in inner city schools, try to teach the children who’ve heard you call them animals, and see how well you sort them out.
I have three children who all struggle at school.
Between them, Gove and Hopkins would technically call them animals that need to pick up litter as punishment and write copious lines while other kids learn.
I just call them kids who deserve the same future as any other kid. It’s not the kids fault that schools do not have the funding to support them properly.
Instead of targeting the kids, why don’t they do something novel and find the ways to help all kids meet their potential instead of blaming them.
Kat says
February 6, 2014 at 6:29 pmAt my daughters former school there was a child who hijacked (and I am not using this term loosely) her entire class for three consecutive years running because of his behavior. The school in turn tried every manner of discipline, cajoling, bribery, notifying parents and such to curb his behavior. It didn’t work. And from the reports I’ve gotten from other parents who still have their child in this school still isn’t working. Now, I am all for supporting children that are falling behind and want to learn. I am even for working to turn around a students behavior with positive reinforcement. I just have to wonder at what point does enough become enough for a school? I pulled my child out of the school because of this one student. Others have done the same. Does it take a child being seriously hurt for there to be any repercussions? I’m not calling this child an animal by any stretch of the imagination, but he was more than a slight nuisance for children who actually came to school to learn and be productive. My daughter is still scarred by her bully and it has been a year since we moved schools. So I understand your point, but I just want to know at what point should it go from they’re just kids to this kid needs more help than we can support?
Scottish Mum says
February 6, 2014 at 9:13 pmI don’t believe in blaming the child at school. The child didn’t hijack any learning. The education system failed the child and every other child that was affected.
Bad behaviour is always a sign of something going wrong. Sometimes very wrong. If the school concentrated on only the child, there is no way it is ever going to work. The whole environment has to be considered. It isn’t something they can stick a band aid on or try to train like a lap dog and hope it will work.
Kids need their attention kept with work at appropriate levels and with adequate and appropriate supervision levels. I don’t know how old the child you are talking about is, but if they are under secondary school age, there are always methods of keeping control if they shake some money at it.
The child is not a nuisance by any means, but the adults failing to take appropriate action or to give the funding for it to happen certainly are.
Bullies have feelings too, which we should never forget when we are trying to get something sorted out about a situation we are not happy with. In your situation, I see the school as the one at fault. You protected your child as best as you could given that the other child was also being failed. It’s a sad situation for anyone.
Our children have a lot to learn from even badly behaved children, as they are not going to come across perfectly behaved specimens of the human race in their adult lives. It’s a valuable skill to learn how to act with and on the behalf of a child or adult who is not coping, and work as a team to fix any problems that come up.
As much as we may not like it, badly behaved people are everywhere in life, however, I fully agree with you that there are points where a child who is not coping in a school needs to be removed and placed somewhere that can deal with the challenges that the child faces for their own safety and the safety of other children in the school. Allowing a child to persistently bully another is another failure to deal with the problem on the behalf of the school and the school not supporting you as parents.
Fast forward to secondary school post 13, and all I hear about is fights, fights, fights. I’d certainly hate to be a teen in schools now with the access they have to information so young, and the bad role models that affect all our kids online and in cinema offerings.
How sad that so many kids are being failed at that school.
Kat says
February 7, 2014 at 9:58 amI agree that it was a total failure of the school. Unfortunately I have friends who don’t have the means to move their child as we live in a very rural area and most of the schools are already over capacity. I’m lucky I had options whereas a lot of the parents in my area don’t.
Scottish Mum says
February 7, 2014 at 4:17 pmThere are always options though sadly we always have to fight for them and not everybody is able to, and neither are schools often willing to. It’s very sad for all children who are left to paddle their own canoes.
Ali B says
February 6, 2014 at 6:17 pmTotally agree with you. You should stand as an MP!
Scottish Mum says
February 6, 2014 at 8:55 pmAbsolutely no chance at all, even if you were being serious lol.