Who’s in charge? From school strike to protests at the school gates

The traditional image of a teacher – stern, frightening, in control – now seems terribly out of date. It’s not just the belief in discipline that has fallen out of fashion – even the idea that it’s the job of adults to educate children has been called into question. If teachers once felt free to hammer certain traditional values into their pupils, they are now more likely to ask their students for ideas about political issues like environmentalism. Indeed, from the idolisation of Greta Thunberg to the craze for ‘child-centred pedagogy’, many argue that children, rather than teachers, possess greater knowledge and authority.

Some welcome this new focus on what young people have to say. They argue that young people are more in touch with the values of the twenty-first century and reflective of the diversity of the contemporary UK, than the pale, male and stale status quo. Some go as far as suggesting that a prioritisation of young people’s experiences is perhaps a necessary corrective to the ‘boomer years’ of environmental destruction, rampant inequality, racism and sexism. The 2018 ‘school strike for climate’ – a loosely coordinated ‘strike’ by pupils led by a then-unknown Thunberg – was not just tolerated by teachers and parents, but in many cases actively encouraged.

More traditional voices are concerned with this shift in authority, noting that young people are always going to try and push boundaries. (And some commentators have noted that actions like school strikes are hardly radical when they have the approval of the very group they are supposed to target.) Moreover, they argue that conceding control over education to a younger generation would be to fail as responsible adults. Traditionally, such authority was seen as the bedrock of teaching – you can’t control, much less teach, a class if you don’t have the aura and sanction of adult society standing behind you.

The unspoken agreement between parents and teachers to be on the same side seems to have all but evaporated.  Some teachers report that parents are much more likely to take the side of their child than trust and continue the school’s discipline at home. The dangerous consequences of this development were revealed in the ruckus at Batley Grammar School, where parents protested the decision of an RE teacher to show a cartoon of Islam’s Prophet Muhammed. The protests were so vicious that the teacher was forced into hiding for fear of his life.

Who, then, is ultimately in charge? What is the balance between the demands of adult society and the originality of the young? How much latitude should pupils get to put their values into action – and should schools, teachers and parents condone, indulge or challenge this youthful energy? Is it time to put teachers back on the pedestal, or have they been knocked off forever?