100 signatures reached
To: The Children’s Commissioner
Stop all kinds of exclusions from our schools
Stop all kinds of exclusions from our schools
An urgent demand that educational authorities put an end to the use of the Exclusion Policy in our schools.
An urgent demand that educational authorities put an end to the use of the Exclusion Policy in our schools.
Why is this important?
- Exclusions further damage already vulnerable children. They are often subsequently exposed to gang life, drugs, etc. Excluded children are often irretrievably tunnelled down a pathway to prison. The children who have suffered illegal or unfair exclusion develop a lifelong distrust of authority figures when the very people they trust and look up to turn against them. In the most egregious cases children develop psychological problems and become depressed and some, even suicidal.
- To put an end to child abuse by teachers, in their application of the policy. School rating (League Tables) and funding practices of the government encourage schools to act in ‘the best interest of the school’ rather than in ‘the best interest of the child’ and exclusion is used to achieve performance goals of the school.
- The policy is fundamentally flawed. Excluded children are like weeds removed from the garden so that they do not destroy the real plants. Weeds will always be weeds, but children are not like weeds, they can change. Years of tweaking the policy, based on official findings and recommendations, have failed to cure the defects in the system.
- We need schools to provide the nurturing environment necessary for all kinds of children to reach their best potential. The exclusion policy does the exact opposite. In its application, the policy is socially and racially divisive. We now have a two-tier structure and the second tier is a veritable dustbin!
We need proactive solutions and administrators who as a rule, refuse to give up on any child. The practice of putting so-called ‘problem children’ aside, in another (often less desirable) stream of schooling, only moves the problem along. Surely, it is easier and wiser to go the extra mile, to strive, to save a child today, than to reform an adult tomorrow. It is easier to bend the sapling than the tree.
The age-old wisdom embedded in the maxim stated above is that even when it is clear that a child is ‘bad’, that child remains part of the family, and one must continue to train the child and be hopeful that one of the measures applied will work and that the child will change and ultimately become a productive member of society. This is the wisdom in *enlightened self-interest.
The harm being done in the lives of these ‘excluded’ children will come back to us all, in future. It may be ‘convenient’ to ‘exclude’ them from school, but they will show up in society and several times more hardened.
The policy is short-sighted, damages children and is unsustainable, because ‘there is no dustbin for a bad child!
*Enlightened self-interest is a philosophy in ethics which states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to which they belong), ultimately serve their own self-interest. Wikipedia.org
- To put an end to child abuse by teachers, in their application of the policy. School rating (League Tables) and funding practices of the government encourage schools to act in ‘the best interest of the school’ rather than in ‘the best interest of the child’ and exclusion is used to achieve performance goals of the school.
- The policy is fundamentally flawed. Excluded children are like weeds removed from the garden so that they do not destroy the real plants. Weeds will always be weeds, but children are not like weeds, they can change. Years of tweaking the policy, based on official findings and recommendations, have failed to cure the defects in the system.
- We need schools to provide the nurturing environment necessary for all kinds of children to reach their best potential. The exclusion policy does the exact opposite. In its application, the policy is socially and racially divisive. We now have a two-tier structure and the second tier is a veritable dustbin!
We need proactive solutions and administrators who as a rule, refuse to give up on any child. The practice of putting so-called ‘problem children’ aside, in another (often less desirable) stream of schooling, only moves the problem along. Surely, it is easier and wiser to go the extra mile, to strive, to save a child today, than to reform an adult tomorrow. It is easier to bend the sapling than the tree.
The age-old wisdom embedded in the maxim stated above is that even when it is clear that a child is ‘bad’, that child remains part of the family, and one must continue to train the child and be hopeful that one of the measures applied will work and that the child will change and ultimately become a productive member of society. This is the wisdom in *enlightened self-interest.
The harm being done in the lives of these ‘excluded’ children will come back to us all, in future. It may be ‘convenient’ to ‘exclude’ them from school, but they will show up in society and several times more hardened.
The policy is short-sighted, damages children and is unsustainable, because ‘there is no dustbin for a bad child!
*Enlightened self-interest is a philosophy in ethics which states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to which they belong), ultimately serve their own self-interest. Wikipedia.org
