New year blues · Mon Sep 25, 18:34 by Eleri Straker
It’s a new academic year and despite having some decent classes, I was appalled to discover in my first lesson with a year nine group, that among the students was a face I recognised. Sitting in the front row was a small, spiky haired boy I’d met before. In fact I’d met him during the previous term’s ‘enrichment week’ activities when we were working on news. (‘Making news.’) He was the little Herbert that had so offended me with his obscene and inappropriate questioning.
Being the professional I am, I decided to try to forget his previous behaviour and give him a second chance. Surely this boy couldn’t be as revolting as I thought? Well, yes he is.
He sauntered into the lesson ten minutes late, his hands in his pockets and whistling.
Then he opened his mouth.
I’m not easily shocked, you can’t be if you do this job, but the stuff that emanated from this boy stopped me in my tracks. It was like being immersed in an open sewer. Everything I said was accompanied by a sleazy comment. He didn’t even bother with innuendo. Every topic became a target for sexual comparison and ‘jokes’.
Now this boy has the kind of looks that if he were six, would be regarded as ‘sweet’. He’s small with what I suppose is described as a ‘pert’ face. He has bleached spiky hair and walks with a swagger. The girls find him irresistible. And he knows it. Over the years, he has, I think, used his looks to get away with murder, passing off sexual comment as ‘innocent cheek’ or witty ‘charm’. Well, no longer.
His comments are inappropriate and offensive. He’s a sleazy little boy who, if he were a couple of years older, would probably be arrested for disturbing the peace… or something.
What is worrying, is the fact that nothing seems to be done about him. He is being allowed to get away with sleazy behaviour that would get an adult sacked on grounds of sexual harassment.
At the risk of sounding like a boring old fart, I fear that if this boy’s behaviour is not checked, there is nothing to stop him from growing into a dirty old man, ogling young girls and making lewd comments to them. This might sound like an overreaction, but if he sees nothing wrong in making obscene comments in front of a teacher – an authority figure (apparently), why would he find groping girls in the corridor, whether they want him to or not, inappropriate?
It’s worrying that this boy has grown up believing that turning everything into a dirty joke is acceptable behaviour. Why has nobody (other than me and his previous (also female) English teacher) made an issue of his offensiveness?
As I’ve mentioned before, I make a point of introducing older students to Shakespeare’s dirty jokes. But this is in context. This is a way of showing students that Shakespeare knew how to please his audiences. So there is a place for innuendo and blue jokes, but not from the mouth of a thirteen-year-old sleaze, who thinks that because he’s ‘cute’ (apparently!) he can turn everything into a wallow in a sewer.
