Dr. Dawg

Mrs. Grundy goes to school

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Hugs.jpg

OK, I can live with replacing playground equipment in Ontario schools in 2001-2. It works, apparently. And anti-bullying initiatives in the schools are essential—bullying kills—although the most effective interventions are by supportive peers, not teachers.

But we can go too far, feeding our own sense of rightness to the detriment of the kids. The non-Christmas and non-Hallowe’en stuff is silly, and frankly feeble explanations don’t improve matters.

Am I all in favour of inclusiveness? You bet. Do Christmas and Hallowe’en celebrations, mostly secular at this point, make schoolchildren, mostly secular at this point, feel excluded? In the presence of sanctimonious supposition, and in the absence of evidence, I find that rather hard to believe.

And now this: hugging has been outlawed in Brampton’s Earnscliffe Senior Public School. That’s not the only centre of moral zeal, either: at Herb Campbell Public School in Caledon, one 12-year-old was threatened with suspension.

For hugging.

Come on, people, get a grip—as it were. Luckily, these are not the kids of yesteryear. They’ve already planned a hug-in on June 20. They’ve reportedly got a Facebook group going, too, and an on-line petition, although the links in the article to both are non-functional as of this writing. (Hmmm.)

Time, I might suggest, for over-protective school boards and nanny-principals to turn their attention to serious matters—like teaching. And to get some balls.

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This page contains a single entry by Dr. Dawg published on June 7, 2012 4:15 PM.

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