Teachers at a school in Leicstershire have been banned from describing pupils behaviour as “good” or “bad” and have been instructed to use the words “skilful” or “unskilful.”
The new policy is set out to manage discipline which is not inspired by “political correctness” which is designed to “take the emotional heat out of language.”
Dr Julian Murphy who is the headmaster at Loughborogh Amherst School they are “not interested in making young people feel bad.”
Dr Murphy insists his school is “quite strict” and he rejects any mention that Amherst is “trendy” of “progressive.”
He told the i newspaper, “While I don’t want teachers to be soft, I also don’t want them to be shouty and make pupils feel guilty.
“I think it’s human psychology, even when you’re an adult – if people make you feel guilty, then you get angry and then actually that’s when you’re likely to play the blame game and not to work that well.
“That’s when things get into a bit of a vicious circle.”
Dr Murphy said the words unskilful shows “concern” instead of “anger” and took the school’s new terminology from Buddhism.
He added, “You’re not really angry with them, your action is actually much more one of concern because they’re behaving in an extremely unskilful way which is going to negatively affect their life chances and possibly those of people around them.”
Leave a Comment