Down by the school yard

In October a friend organised a trip for our congregation to tour the Houses of Parliament and then spend an hour with our MP. I would recommend the exercise. The decor of the building is beautifully steeped in Christian tradition and the MP emphasised that she was glad to meet us be-cause Christians need to make their voices heard much more. (Perhaps she says that to all her visitors?)

However, in passing, the MP mentioned that when she is asked to go into schools to speak about her work to teenagers she often finds herself having to talk about sex and drugs. The implication was that this is the only way to get the youngsters’ attention; much else would be dismissed as boring. This is not the first time that I have run into the idea that to make young people sit up and take notice something salacious or even shocking must be presented.

As part of the history curriculum in secondary schools the students rightly have to do an exercise in reading and assessing evidence from original documents. In one school the teacher put before the class the authentic police reports from the case of Jack the Ripper. Again, it would appear the motive for choosing such documents was that unless kids are shocked they won’t be interested. Having read the first piece from the Ripper case one young Christian girl, in year 9, simply got up and walked out. She did not see why she should have her mind so sullied. Later another pupil came to her and confessed that he wished he had walked out too. ‘I already have nightmares’, he said. Her parents took up the situation with the school. The teacher subsequently fully apologised for the manner in which the lesson was conducted, but the issue of this material being in the syllabus still remains.