News from the front line of the Culture Wars

The NUT yesterday passed a resolution that 'teachers and schools should not be conduits for either dissemination of MoD propaganda or the recruitment of military personnel' , ie. that the armed forces should not be allowed to give careers advice in the classroom.

Depressing but not surprising. More disgusting, however, was the healthy round of applause received by one delegate who ranted that, if it were not to be misleading, recruitment material would have to say ' Join the Army and we will send you to carry out the imperialist occupation of other people's countries'. He accused the army of torture and murder into the bargain.

These are school teachers remember.

BBC 24 reported this last night. In a segment which seemed not to have even the pretence of impartiality, it dredged up 'a student' , who was interviewed from Leeds, to talk about how the RAF had misled him by offering up nothing but the good points about military service under the cover of an invitation to an RAF band concert at the school. The student's particular credentials for speaking where never given, and the anchor didn't even try to put anything other than anti-military questions to him.

This was compounded by an interview which followed with, presumably, a disinterested figure, a defence expert in Oxford, who defended the military. He then faced a barage of hostile questions from the co-anchor.   

The NUT, the BBC.  It's the Culture, stupid.

Comments

[bexie]

Gods and these leftie traitors are teaching our children?

[With teachers like these?]

With teachers like these, who needs an incompetent education system to screw up our children?

One would have thought these people had more pressing problems to deal with in their own bailiwick. But, perhaps this just serves as an illustration of why our state education is such a disgrace.

[Miranda]

Well, I as a parent (and a customer) do not want schools to be a conduit for the dissemination of anti-British propaganda and the recruitment of socialist voters. Neither do I want the BBC, of which I again am an unwilling customer, to disseminate anti- British propaganda and the recruitment of socialist voters.

So I need to complain to schools, make my views known at parents evenings. Lobby the PTA, encourage military career advice. Make sure every teacher I meet knows my views. Make sure I talk about the issue socially. Add comments on the Guardian's comments are free. Make donations to the British Legion, advance the cause of a Forces Day. Complain to the BBC - yet again - on their very easy to use complaints website; (somewhere down the line these complaints will be counted.)

Yes it is disgusting, yes these people are bullies, traitors and Quislings - but we need to fight back in every way possible. These views should not be tolerated in our institutions, and we need to make that very clear. It is time we joined forces to eradicate this threat to our security. There is something everyone of us can do about it, and if we all do it then our joint voice will start to be heard.

There is also one question I would love to know the answer too, how many of the NUTs who voted for this motion, also voted Labour in 2005? And how many still have that intention. Maybe someone could conduct a survey and publish the result so that what I suspect is their bullying hypocrisy is held up to the full glare of publicity.

[Dontmakemelaugh]

It emerged that the female union leader putting forward the motion was a pacifist (and probably a Trot. The BBC gave her as much publicity to her proposal as it could on Radio 5, before 9am and then an hour's discussion after 9am.

Do we expect anything different from the BBC? Of course we don't. Its a leftie menace. Log on to bbcbias.com

[Miranda]

@ dontmakemelaugh

I think perhaps you mean http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/. Or if not this is a good one as well.

[Matt Wright]

A NUT motion that is pretty insulting to the many fellow citizens who are putting their lives on the line defending our values and our country in all corners of the world. One thing I know for certain is that many ordinary teachers up and down the land will feel the same distaste.

[David Belchamber]

A pity that someone did not remind the conference that it was a labour government that took us into this war (with opposition support, of course).
The NUT conference always makes me cringe though other teachers' unions are quite different (Question: why do they need so many unions for such a relatively small number of people?).

[Buckinghamshire Tory]

These bastards in the NUT makes even Arthur Scargill look like a reasonable man.

[Graeme Pirie]

Whilst I can agree with the comments relating to the "socialist" nature of the NUT and agree that teachers should be teaching and not involved in politics (any more than the rest of us), I can well remember as a parent being horrified when my 15 year old came home from school and announced he was joining the army following a recruitment drive.

Schools are not the place for this.

Why don't we have recruitment desks in Jobcentres, then when the malingerers bleat that they can't find a job, they can be directed across the room...

[Miranda]

@ Mr Pirie

Was that because you felt the recruitment was propaganda and that the army is involved in 'imperialist occupation of other people's countries'. Or was it because you didn't feel it was suitable for him or you had other plans? Did you suggest he did some time in army cadets if that was his aim? Did you find out why the career attracted him?

As a business woman I go into schools and talk about running your own business, my brother, a fire officer, goes in and talks about the fire service, IBM go in and talk about careers in IT. So why should the forces not go in and talk about the careers they offer; why is it a job for those who cannot get any other job? The army is for professionals as much as any other career and not to treat it as such is rather insulting. I have one friend who had two sons go into the army and they now both have extremely exciting and adventurous jobs in international intelligence - they are quite the envy of some of their peers.

[GT]

The NUT will only get more sensible when it moves its annual conference. How many sane people will chose to give up their Easter weekend, to go to a conference. Most normal teachers will be with family, children or church.
The trotskyist like the conference at this time as it maximises their attendees and minimises more moderate voices.
It is really time to ignore this nutty union and take more heed of the more thoughful voices in schools.

[Ali T]

I could say that I was surprised by this shameful motion and the comments by members of the NUT, but let’s be honest about this situation this has been coming for many years like a car crash in slow motion.

One could try to justify this stance by the general disengagement and lack of understanding by an ever increasing majority of the population with our armed forces? One could even try to blame this on the creep of leftwing ideas in our schools and colleges? Perhaps we could even try to dismiss this appalling motion by saying that it is being put forward by a couple of individuals who are simply out of touch, the so called mad, bad and dangerous to know, but the truth I suspect is a far more worrying and cynical than that.

Remember this is the same group of individuals who wanted to reclassify those children who failure as deferred success. This is the same group of people who have failed to lobby the Government in any meaningful way over the fact that 300,000 children start school unable to speak properly or understand simple instructions. This is the same group of people who receive more money per student than ever before and yet produce more teenagers in capable of finding work, training or going on to university or college. This is the same group of individuals who allow a fifth of our children to leave school unable to read, write and add up properly. Do they debate these issues, no they seek to distract our gaze from the real issues, educational failure and instead focus them on what I would describe as a side show issue.

Is this a cynical ploy…I think so and it seems to come straight out of the Labour book of spin.

I will justify this by saying just look at the column inches dedicated to the issue of the military in schools. Where is the serious discussion about what needs to be done to stop failing our nations children, to equip them with the skills to ensure that they can find jobs and provide for themselves and family?

I could be wrong and I would welcome the thoughts of other bloggers.

[David Belchamber]

As a postscript, it is worth adding though that NUT seems to be the only organisation to realise that inflation is running a little higher than 2.2% p.a.
They have referred to the RPI but that hasn't stopped them from demadning a 10% rise.