The Barnet Eye Saturday Blog round-up

There have been some excellent blogs this week. Whilst I recommend all of the blogs I link to in the sidebar, there are a few I'd especially like to mention. Firstly there is a great blog on the Hendon Times by former Editor, Dennis Signy. Dennis recalls the days when councillors didn't get allowances and purely stood out of public duty. He also applauds the Times campaign against allowances, as well as describing a terrifying experience on Highwood Hill :-

http://www.times-series.co.uk/blogs/8290405.A_moment_of_fear_on_Highwood_Hill/

I had my own terrifying moment on Highwood Hill a few years ago. I was walking down the Hill on a Saturday morning. As I walked down, I noticed Lord Levy's entourage turn the corner and start walking up - This was when  he was part of the Blair government and received a full escort of armed outriders. As he walked up, a young lad of muslim appearance jogged past me. He had his ipod on and a backpack on. Oblivious to the world, he jogged towards the Levy posse. The bodyguards clocked the threat and took immediate evasive action. For a horrible moment, their body language indicated that they were about to shoot the poor lad, who probably hadn't a clue who or what he was running into. Luckily they seemed to realise that he was probably just late for a train and he jogged past unimpeded, but in the light of the John Charles Menezes incident, it really worried me for a while. As I pondered the incident, I wondered what I might have told a post mortem.

If you want a laugh, check out this post on Daniel Hoffman-Gill's blog. It's a selection of defaced Conservative election posters.

http://danielhg.blogspot.com/2010/07/disfigured-conservative-election.html


There is also an interesting bit of news on the Adam and Eve pub blog. They've found the original pub sign (the one with the naked pair on). As a kid at St Vincents, we used to take great delight in peeking at the naked lady, especially when Father Corkery informed us it was a sin ! (actually I made that last bit up, but I'm sure he would have, if he'd thought about it).

http://adamandevenw7.blogspot.com/2010/07/mill-hill-times.html

Another blog which made me laugh was the "Mog in a Box" by Ainelivia, who is a regular commenter. Given our old moggy Norman (a Short haired British Blue) passed away a few years ago, I'd forgotten who moggies like to park themselves in boxes. It made me feel a bit nostalgic. We've switched to the doggy world, although I've been considering buying a Pot Bellied pig and calling it Brian. I love the way moggies have the "I'm really comfy" look when they find such a place.

http://ainelivia.blogspot.com/2010/07/early-gray-box-takeover.html

Next off for a vist across the pond to Roger Owen Green. Following my bit on Corporal punishment this week at Finchley, he writes a great blog on spanking (as a punishment for children). Roger gives his reasons for opposing it. My views on corporal punishment have changed. When I first had children, I thought it was Ok & used to smack them when they were naughty. One day I sat down and thought about it. I realised that smacking as a punishment of small children is only OK if as a parent you lack the wit and intelligence to resolve the issue any other way. Now I'm against it. There are many reasons, but Roger sums many up quite nicely here.

http://www.rogerogreen.com/2010/07/23/the-spanking-policy/#more-2633

Enjoy the weekend

The truth about Corporal Punishment

Earlier in the week I came across a truly fascinating document. It is entitled "The End of Corporal Punishment at Finchley". This document is posted on the Finchley Catholic High School website in the archive section of the old boys association. It details entries for the final ten years of corporal punishment at the school. I challenge anyone who believes that Corporal Punishment has a place in the education system to read this. Just to give you some idea of the scale of use as a remedy, look at this graph from the document.

As you can see in the 1979-80 term, 140 pupils received the cane (or other such punishments). That is more than one every two days. So what sort of heinious crimes were the boys caned for. Here's a small selection :-

Now I attened the school from 1974 to 1978 (I completed my education at Orange Hill Senior High School, where I can't remember a single instance of corporal punishment and behaviour was certainly far better - especially mine). At the time it seemed quite normal to receive the cane for trivial offences, if caught by the wrong teacher. I got it once for "pushing in on the dinner queue" (I didn't want to be late for a lunchtime detention). I didn't give it much thought until I moved to Stockholm in 1981 for six months. There my friends were shocked that such practicises were still allowed. They'd been banned in Sweden decades before. In fact they thought I was lying about it and only believed me when a friend from FCHS showed up and confirmed the story.

Bad behaviour at Finchley at the time was met with a completely random and arbitary approach. It all depended on which teacher caught you. The better ones such as John Shutler would sit you down and talk to you about your behaviour. He caught me writing obscenities about his wife on the toilet wall (she was also a quite attractive teacher). His remedy? He arranged for me to redecorate the toilets at half term, paying for the paint out of my own pocket. He knew that I would have been expelled and I am eternally grateful for the sensible lesson he taught.

I wonder how many of the boys caned for gambling, smoking or talking in class were cured by a sound thrashing. I don't recall anyone saying "thats it for me". A couple of the teachers took a far more pragmatic view to smoking and would just pinch your fags (I suspect certain teachers contracted lung cancer entirely at the expense of the pupils).

I have one observation. The peak years for canings appear to be the Neil Kelly era - 1975 - 1979. Several years ago, my company took a boy on work experience from FCHS. As we were making the arrangements, I told the school secretary that I was an old boy of the school. She enquired when. I replied 1974-1978. She glumly announced "Oh we call that the dark period". She went on to assure me that the school was much better now.

Does Corporal punishment work? When I transferred to Orange Hill and realised that things were dealt with in sensible balanced and rational way, I concluded no. Reading this document has not changed that belief. I got my children to read this document. Suffice to say that in the age of childline they were truly shocked

The effects of beating children

Those of you who follow my blog will have seen that I recently have made several posts about a blog which, in my opinion, was promoting the beating of children.

A comment was left on that blog which, to me at least, summed up the matter. I thought the comments were worthy of repeating. I know that some readers feel that my reaction to these comments were OTT, but the less socially acceptable beating children is, the less we tolerate the use of violence to control children and the more people use other strategies to discipline children, the less cases like babyP we'll have. To the proponents of smacking, I'll say this. If the line is drawn in the sand with a zero tolerance of violence, then there are no grey areas and no excuses. When I left school in 1981, I lived in Stockholm for a while. I was surprised to find that the Swede's had banned corporal punishment decades before. Were their schools overrun by thugs? No. I'll accept that in some schools discipline has deterioirated since Corporal punishment was abolished, but I don't believe that this is due to the new rules. I just think that it was the result of poorly administered schools. If it was down to the ban on corporal punishment, then every school would be overrun by thugs.

Anyway, here's the comment.

"My Dad beat me and it did do a load of damage. I used to think 'whats that for' see he beat cos he could, bad day at the office dear, oww never mind beat da kid.
WTF.
In the end the beatings made me give up, give up on them as parents and me.
Im lucky I got out
Think it through...ya approving of someone twice ya size beating on ya.
Sorry I can't go with da 'this is so post ironic middle class babble, beating kids is wrong and dats the end of it.
Ya post sucks"

Couldn't really have put it better myself.

By the way, I'm just back from a weekend football tournament at Butlins in Bognor Regis with the Watling FC Under 9 team. Ten boys went with the team. All were a credit to their parents, a great time was had by all. These are things I want to define my relationship with my kids, not fear of being bashed.