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[–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Teaching children to hate each other

The influence of identity politics has become a serious problem in Britain’s schools. Some teachers now seem to think it is acceptable to present critical race theory or ideas of ‘white privilege’ as fact. And others choose to exploit their position by filling young, impressionable minds with religious bigotry.

Take, for example, what happened a few months ago at Richmond Hill Academy, a multi-ethnic, religiously diverse primary school in Leeds. A Muslim supply teacher, covering a Year 6 class, reportedly told her 10- and 11-year-old pupils that ‘white people and white children think they are superior’. She also said she was ‘happy’ and ‘proud’ to be a Muslim because it meant she ‘knew respect’. And, to top it all off, she allegedly accused one Muslim pupil of not being her ‘level of Muslim’ because the pupil in question supposedly did not always eat halal meat.

It beggars belief that a teacher could peddle such divisive nonsense to a class of impressionable pre-teens. And the fact she did so at a school with such a diverse student population only makes matters worse.

The headteacher, Anna Mackenzie, handled the situation well. After being told what had happened by the pupils involved, Mackenzie pulled the supply teacher out of the class and ordered her off the school’s premises. According to the GORSE Academies Trust, which runs Richmond Hill Academy, the matter has been referred to the local authority and to the agency which provided the supply teacher.

Nevertheless, this case raises serious questions over the regulation of supply teachers in the UK – and whether the process is open to abuse by those wishing to exert undue influence over young people. There are safeguarding and social-cohesion issues to consider here, too. Schools – especially those in diverse areas – should be places in which pupils of different ethnic and religious backgrounds mix and form bonds. They should not be taught to hate each other.