As the weather has been improving, I've started walking again; and since we now live in a more urban area, it's a significantly different experience from that to which I became familiar whilst rambling on The Surrey Hills. The obvious differences - such as the comparative lack of trees and other assorted foliage; and the very welcome absence of mountain-bikers are to be expected. However, today, I encountered an interesting, and thought-provoking, situation which doesn't involve the environment - but the population; and more specifically, children.
At this point, I have to admit that my experiences as a school-bus driver during the nineties has seriously affected my opinion of children; because the behaviour of some of those I have driven is almost beyond reasonable understanding. One worrying example involved children on a double-decker bus who attached a shoe to a "rope" (manufactured from four or five school ties knotted together) and lowered it from a window on the upper deck in an attempt to knock other school-children off their bicycles as we drove past them. Fortunately, I caught sight of what was going on in my rear-view mirror; but the thought of a child tumbling of a bike and ending up under the rear wheels of the bus was fightening. I have also witnessed bullying of varying degrees; the worst of which involved boys (incredibly - from a junior school) making sexually-explicit threats against a clearly distressed young girl.
Now, all of the badly-behaved ones I had the misfortune to meet attended local authority schools; and the reason I make that point is that the sort of behaviour I've just described never happened when I was driving children from private schools.
So, you might be asking yourselves, what has this got to do with my rambling?
Well, the route I took today passed two sets of playing-fields. One belongs to the preparitory department of a public school and the other to the local authority; and, in both cases, I happened to be passing as the children were being escorted back to their respective school buildings. So, bearing in mind the experiences I've described, it was no surprise to me that the children from the public school were being supervised by just two teachers; but, it was deemed necessary for the other group to have at least half-a-dozen teachers and classroom assistants (or whatever they're called) to maintain some semblance of discipline.
Draw your own conclusions.
At this point, I have to admit that my experiences as a school-bus driver during the nineties has seriously affected my opinion of children; because the behaviour of some of those I have driven is almost beyond reasonable understanding. One worrying example involved children on a double-decker bus who attached a shoe to a "rope" (manufactured from four or five school ties knotted together) and lowered it from a window on the upper deck in an attempt to knock other school-children off their bicycles as we drove past them. Fortunately, I caught sight of what was going on in my rear-view mirror; but the thought of a child tumbling of a bike and ending up under the rear wheels of the bus was fightening. I have also witnessed bullying of varying degrees; the worst of which involved boys (incredibly - from a junior school) making sexually-explicit threats against a clearly distressed young girl.
Now, all of the badly-behaved ones I had the misfortune to meet attended local authority schools; and the reason I make that point is that the sort of behaviour I've just described never happened when I was driving children from private schools.
So, you might be asking yourselves, what has this got to do with my rambling?
Well, the route I took today passed two sets of playing-fields. One belongs to the preparitory department of a public school and the other to the local authority; and, in both cases, I happened to be passing as the children were being escorted back to their respective school buildings. So, bearing in mind the experiences I've described, it was no surprise to me that the children from the public school were being supervised by just two teachers; but, it was deemed necessary for the other group to have at least half-a-dozen teachers and classroom assistants (or whatever they're called) to maintain some semblance of discipline.
Draw your own conclusions.
