According to a recent report in the UK’s Daily Mail, more than nine in ten nursery workers have been told not to use the word ‘naughty’ when dealing with misbehaviour.
Danielle Butler, operations director at Tommies Childcare in the Midlands, said children may feel ‘labelled’ as ‘naughty’ and instead urged nursery staff to manage bad behaviour with ‘positive reinforcement’.
Oh, puh-lease!
Parents, teachers and carers have been using words like ‘naughty boy’ or ‘that’s naughty’ since Adam was a lad. And the child in question understands perfectly what the disciplinarian means. In fact, ‘naughty’ is a useful shorthand we use with children exactly because it’s easily understood.
I promised myself when I started writing this particular piece that I wasn’t going to use the S-word but frankly, I give up: ladies and gentlemen, we are raising a generation of snowflakes. We are so obsessed with not offending anyone that we are tumbling into a world of moral equivalence where nothing is wrong.
My cousin, who teaches in an Essex primary school, was recently confronted by a furious mother who accused her of ‘traumatising’ her child.
The school in question operates a ‘traffic light’ list, in which each child’s name appears in either a green, amber or red column on a whiteboard. The ‘trauma’ in question had been caused by my cousin transferring the name of the child (who had been a little shit all day) to the red column.
That was it. Trauma by list.
My cousin very creditably refrained from pointing out to mum that in days not that long gone by, her son might have faced the real trauma of having three foot of rattan cane put across his precious backside.
No wonder teachers are losing control of their classrooms. And what happens in the left-wing social engineering labs of our schools will be coming soon to homes all over the UK, mark my words.
It’s time to reverse all this nonsense. Children must clearly be taught right from wrong. I will continue to use the N-word – especially as my children are aware of the likely consequences when I do.
And I’m not talking about transferring their name to another list.
Contributor: Louise. Originally published in her blog The Spanking Mum. Opinions expressed are solely those of the original author.