Do we want the BNP in our schools?

[JessieHogg]

A BNP activist and former teacher has been cleared of racism by the General Teaching council. Adam Walker, 41, used a school laptop to post comments online describing immigrants as "savage animals" while working at Houghton Kepier Sports College, in Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham. He also claimed Britain was a "dumping ground for the filth of the third world".

Despite declaring itself "troubled" by Walker's views, the GTC decided that while Walker's postings demonstrated an attitude that might be considered racist, the specific references to immigrants were not necessarily "suggestive of any particular views on race". Its has been criticised by teaching unions including the NUT, whose leader, Christine Blower, described the decision as "perverse".

The decision, in March, by the then-schools secretary Ed Balls not to ban teachers from joining the BNP outright means that the debate has now descended into an argument over semantics. (The GTC, in effect, is saying it's not racist to describe immigrants in general as "filth", because immigrants are an ethnically diverse group -- a line of argument not unlike that of a comedian who makes jokes about black people saying "I'm not racist, I hate everyone...") But this threatens to obscure a more fundamental question:

should BNP members have any involvement in our schools at all?

[uncon]

I got all excited then, thinking we could grab a racist and bring them in for show and tell!

[Midas]

Surely if someone is a member of a legally recognised political party they shouldn't be banned from any job, or vice versa, no-one should be banned from joining any legally recognised political party regardless of what they do for a living? Of course there's s distinction to be drawn between simply being a member and using your job to promote or otherwise be involved in a political party, but given normal legal and employment constraints I fail to see it should be an issue.

[silentmist]

No political party should be represented in any educational establishment.

[DC]

No political party should be represented in any educational establishment.

I don't think this is the issue, the teacher wasn't representing the BNP nor promoting any political view in his capacity as a teacher to students. The issue is whether or not BNP members should be allowed to be teachers, which is a moronic question; nobody should be barred from doing their job because of unrelated, legal political affiliations. If we went down this line of thinking it becomes legal for a pub owner in Yorkshire to fire any bartenders who are members of Labour, or even construction companies firing workers based on Union affiliations.

[The Silver Eagle]

No political party should be represented in any educational establishment.

This thread wasn't started on the idea of influence for a certain political
party except the fact that someone was accused of their so called 'racist'
views and words on immigrants and what Britain was to be fouled.


My view on your comment is that no Political stance cannot stand in
education. It is wrong to impose the young and it is their decision and
their belief of what and who they are.

Right now most of the education in the U.S is controlled by the Left with
hardly even one Conservative. I saw a poll of how an equal amount of
students who were Democrat or Conservative/Republican attended a college,
but when the graduating year was taken only 2% were either Republican
/Conservative!


Politics I'm saying shouldn't be involved in education except the needed
education. But the Left finds ways on that and the target sadly is History
to be revised to it's students and convince them enough of it.



Anyway, I just go by that anyone can qualify who is eligable with a good
background and enough experience for the position...

[AngloChimp12]

If you deny any type of view, even prejudiced views; then you're contradicting what Britain is meant to be about, freedom of speech and idealism.

[octopus]

Children should be allowed to make up their own minds about their political ideas. I could think of far worse organisations than the BNP: the IRA (still very much about in Ulster), Al Queda, class war and many others, including some far-right organisations - all openly advocate violence, which the BNP don"t. If a party doesn"t openly push violence, then surely, they have a right to be heard! We do supposingly, live in a free society. Yet homosexuals, are given jobs as teachers; fine so long as they keep it out of the classroom - but surely there"s some risk there.

No doubt NEO, would say racism is more serious (depending how far the said racism goes) than flying a plane into an office building in New York and killing 3,000 of its workers; people that live in the real world think otherwise, I think you will find.

As controversal organisations, or indeed, far-right parties go, I think the BNP are one of the the least worrying. Let"s be honest, they do enjoy a lot of support. As for our Muslim friends, above, they are biggest racists of the lot; 3,000 people were killed because they were western.

[Midas]

If you deny any type of view, even prejudiced views; then you're contradicting what Britain is meant to be about, freedom of speech and idealism.

The original topic was about banning teachers from being members of the BNP, however I don't think anyone has ever implied that political views, as long as they're presented in a full and balanced way, even by a prejudiced teacher, shouldn't be presented to school children of an appropriate age. What's far more insidious to my mind is the way that some governments, notably the last Labour one, have changed aspects of teaching and the curriculum to reflect their own social views such as 'fairness', non-competitiveness and the reduction in streaming to produce children of just average ability.

[crazylilting]

What is the halmark of a good teacher?

What is the halmark of a good BMP member?

I think there are more differences then similarities between the two. I don't think they would make a good teacher but that doesn't mean that they couldn't teach at all. Question is do we want good teachers or crap ones?

[octopus]

I got all excited then, thinking we could grab a racist and bring them in for show and tell!

The change might do them good - they certainly see enough "leftie" teachers; the results in recent years speak for themselves.