The new Thinkpol in training
Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, head teacher at Anderton Park primary school, is instilling her pupils with a nice little Orwellian ethic. Children have been taught to call out sexist language and even to identify sexist stereotypes in books and worksheets. And the programming training starts at the age of three years in the nursery school.
Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, the head teacher, said: “The phrase ‘Good morning boys and girls’ is not used in this school. Instead all teachers say, ‘Good morning everyone’.
Sian Griffiths, Education Editor, The Sunday Times
Pupils who challenge sexist language, such as calling an assertive girl “bossy” or saying “boys don’t cry”, are rewarded with a certificate. Children also monitor their reading books and worksheets for sexist stereotypes. Two certificates are handed out in each class weekly to pupils who come up with the most telling examples.
Sian Griffiths, Education Editor, The Sunday Times
Shitbag, she's training the new crimethink snitches! Still, at least the thought police will know where to recruit in future.
It seems that in her drive for political correctness, Hewitt-Clarkson epitomises the very worst of what's wrong with the British education system. In her mind, the use of sexist
language—although I'm at a loss as to how boys and girls
is sexist—is part of a spectrum that extends to rape culture
and the rape, torture and murder of women
. She doesn't substantiate this conjecture, at least not in The Sunday Times' article, so whether it's based on sound evidence or she's just blowing hyperbole out of her arse is anyone's guess.
Personally, I think that she might be overstretching her argument, just a little. But, even if she's onto something, the real threats to women in society aren't going to give a crap about her opinions, or her little-minded training programme anyway. Her efforts might be better directed towards promoting active law enforcement and crime detection as future career paths for her pupils, rather than just being coppers' narks.
There's one thing on which I do agree with her, though, and that's addressing girls/women or a mixed group of the sexes as guys
. I hate that, so much. It's a slack-jawed merkanism that I associate with Friends, and upon which I lay the blame for its insidious entry into the English lexicon. It may have started earlier, but I don't care, I'm going to blame Friends anyway.
Females are not guys, I thought that was fairly obvious. They're gals, as in guys 'n' gals; dudettes, as in dudes 'n' dudettes; kittens, as in kats 'n' kittens; bitches; or hoes. So, that's something upon which Hewitt-Clarkson and I can stand together: shoulder-to-shoulder, hand-to-arse.