Who else but Ed "Blinky" Balls, New Labours very own Piers Fletcher Dervish dreams this one up. As reported in The Grauniad.
A source close to the schools secretary, Ed Balls, said there had been several meetings on the issue with teaching unions which are lobbying for a change in teachers' contracts to prevent them from working if they are members of far-right groups including the BNP. The issue was being "actively looked at", the source said.
It comes after it emerged that the General Teaching Council for England (GTC), which registers teachers to work in state schools, had rejected appeals to ban BNP members. Lawyers warned the council it could be accused of discriminating against members of the far-right party if it refused to register them.
Gosh what a wonderful idea, that doesn't make New Labour appear authoritarian at all. Yes we disagree with the BNP viewpoint, so they shall play the "its for the children" card and ban their supporters from becoming teachers.
Yet again rather than destroy an argument through debate they choose the banning option, says a lot about Labour that.
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8 people have spoken:
Usually I either find common ground in your arguments or at least see your point of view: on this I cannot agree. I would not want my children taught by BNP members, in exactly the same way I would not want them influenced by religious nutters.
My personal (i.e, not a repetition of someone else's view) experience of talking to the BNP is that the alarmist, specious and racist views that I have found them to hold are not conducive to education. It is my view that education should open the mind, not close it.
Re Late One:
Aren't our children being taught by "Common Purpose" infiltrated, Neo Marxist teachers, whom first and foremost, subscribe to New Labour and their left wing buddies.
Personally, I'd rather neither extremes were let anywhere near a child - but that's just it, they are being already...
That was to be my response to Late One, D and C.
Anyway, are teachers now providing information about their religious and political beliefs in CV format to parents? How is anyone going to find out a person's stance unless in error?
The Common Purpose business is doing just fine even up here and selected educators etc are sent on course. Naturally, when they return, they never mention Common Purpose, just leadership.
Equally though, I wouldn't want a left wing, commie, socialist labourite teacher teaching my kids either!
Me too.
I think we should ban Labour party members from the teaching profession.
I well remember at a time when I worked underground in the NCB being sent on a day release course to study mining engineering. One of the lessons was 'modern studies', we have a right on extreme lefty trying to bring us all out in support of the steel workers.
APL, if you suggest removing Labour voters from teaching the very self same folk who want to remove BNP supporters from that job, will be the first to complain.
They will tie themselves up in logic knots to prove that one form of politics is fine but another is evil and so should be barred.
The left wing dominated academic classes have been teaching socialism for decades. You can see this up in Scotland where there is no mention of Scotlands role in Empire even though Scots played a major part in the Empires development.
I'm not really sure how a teacher who was a member of the BNP could somehow impose their views to their pupils when their is strict guidelines as to what is taught and strict standards to be adhered to.
Sounds a bit like left wing hysteria or maybe the unions don't want the extra attention to their own members in the event that parents would be making towards the teaching profession in the event of openly card carrying BNP teachers?
I merely speak as I find. I find that the BNP are racist, alarmist and single minded. Not from reading the press, but from my own inbox. In my view this makes them unsuitable for custodianship of any kind, be it teacher, policeman or any other. Sorry Paul me old mucker, no logic knot here! I don't care what kind of extreme a person is, I don't want them near me or mine. I'm proposing that we disenfranchise the nutters. If the BNP are legitimate then so are the mad women dressed as ninjas that want the free speech to tell us to go to hell for doodling. Fuck 'em all. In the mouth, without consent.
And I find that far from Neo-Marxist (whatever that's supposed to be) my kid's teachers are a pretty balanced bunch. My son's teacher in particular has been quite vocal on some of the silliness we've had recently regarding teachers pay and possible industrial action. She agrees that teachers, like other public bodies have a responsibilty to those they serve. Only once they are above reproach do they have the right to demand more from their paymasters, and only then when the rest of the economy isn't in the khazi. Is this not a view to which we can all subscribe? Furthermore, the school sets out in it's prospectus some traditional (read: conservative) values. For example, it holds the family as the crucible of all learning- all children make father's day cards (presumably with some sensitivity to those without, I haven't checked), yet in another primary school near me the kids don't make them at all because many do not have fathers at home. It states a Christian agenda (fuck knows why, but it does) and welcomes other faiths but makes it clear that other faiths will be a matter of curriculum only.
And not a beard and a little red book in sight, nor a swastika and brown shirt. Doubtless there are liberal teachers, socialist teachers and I think there is one Plaid Cymru supporting teacher (she has the sticker on her car). I don't mind that, i find that moderate and balanced. There are no known BNP teachers, Baader-Meinhof teachers, Hizb-ut-Tahrir teachers. And like most of you I wouldn't want there to be.
My sympathy to those of you who find that your children's schools are not providing the balanced, open education that YOU'RE PAYING FOR! Lobby your LEA (or Scottish equivalent if there is one)- if you have time to expound on here you have time to write to them. Or do as I did, find a school with proper traditional values.
Anyway, thanks for reading and if any part of this bothers you I'm only sorry I haven't explained it properly. (except for the first paragraph, I'm not sorry for that and it's adequately explained!).
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