What makes governments and local councils think they know best about just about everything? If I have a leak in the bathroom, I'll call the plumber not Councillor Jones or my local MP. If I want finacial advice I am highly unlikely to ask someone in the Treasury, I think I'll stick to the real professionals. So why does this nannying government insist on telling the real professionals how to do their job all the time? The latest piece of "we know best" guidance is to teachers. New guidance published today gives nuggets of advice such as not over disciplining persistently unruly pupils for fear of alienating them and should instead hand out praise five times more often than punishments. Is this "hug a hoodie" repackaged? Or worse, meaningless wishy washy nonsense? It also goes on to tell teachers to take account of pupils’ race and culture when telling them off - as if teachers care what race a pupil is when it has is displining them - surely that would be classified as racism? All this "guidance" does is undermine the years of experience these professional teachers have and it undermines the legitimacy of the individual school to deal with their pupils.
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