Pupil power

What should happen in a school when a teacher hits a pupil? 

In Greece, students have the right to 'occupy' a high school or university (this is the closest translation of κατάληψη or katalipsi) if they want to protest about something (or perhaps nothing). It turns out that this is what happened this week at our local high school. We saw that the school was closed yesterday morning, with the student body milling around on the street outside, not particularly bothered about the cars trying to get through.

The occupied gateway of the local high school

Today I asked one of the adults waiting around (think she was a parent) what the reason was (past reasons have included protest at educational reforms, the killing of 15-year old Alexis at Christmas 2008 and pension reform [clearly school kids are into forward planning]) and she explained that it was because of this hitting of a pupil. I should have asked for more explanation of that and I don't know what the legal issues are here, but it is interesting that the student body - or at least an active minority - has the option of shutting the school.

One of the things that most intrigues me about this is that it really does seem as though they're looking for any excuse to stop lessons. Most of the kids arrive each morning fully intending to be in classes, but some think it's a better use of the day to shut the school, cause havoc on the roads and some bother for some parents who then need to be looking after their kids, and stop the entire school from learning. 

This is all perfectly legal. And there seems to be no indication of staff trying to talk the protesters down, or parents wading in saying 'get back to school', or an active minority of pupils disagreeing with the action.  These were all possible responses that went through my mind.

I don't want to belittle physical abuse, but I think I prefer the option of the teacher in question, the family involved and the relevant legal bodies sorting out out of school. Or does that just reflect my individualistic, passivist leaning? Is it a healthy thing that the whole school takes responsibility? 

If this sort of thing happens in four years when Joel is at that school, I can imagine it being extremely frustrating. It does make me wonder whether the challenges we'll face in the future will be more complicated than they are now. Our kids are in primary school which is basically straight-forward and seemingly fairly innocent. But as other things we've been reading lately suggest, there is a distinctive and troubled societal undercurrent that is not neutral or light, but does perhaps pose significant challenges to the raising and training and educating of a family.

Having said all that, and re-read it, a large part of me thinks that sounds like over-analytical hogwash, there's nothing new under the sun, and this is a pointless musing. But I think I'll leave it up, if only to look back at in four years' time.