The Riots Around The Country - Any Surprise?

The riots in London and the other cities around England are shocking for want of a better word, and what's more shocking is the large number of younger people joining in. I'm talking about school aged children here, aged between 12 and 16. But should we be surprised?

I watched a BBC news report where some young girls, involved in the riots were interviewed. Here's the link:

Click here!

If you couldn't be bothered to listen, here's the basic scenario:

It's 9.30am after the violence in Croydon and these 15 year old girls are swigging a bottle of looted rose wine explaining that the rioting was fun. They claim that it's all because of the government but struggle to recall who is in government and what the issue actually is. They do however let slip that the action is to show the police that they can do whatever they want. This audio interview is played over footage of the House of Reeves furniture business in Croydon being destroyed by fire, started by the rioters.

Now if you're a teacher you may recognise a phrase common in schools today: they can do whatever they want. It's unfortunately quite an accurate statement nowadays, but was relatively rare when I first started teaching over a decade ago. Those in authority have little or no power nowadays, whether they be in general public through the police, or in schools through teaching staff. There are very few, if any consequences for a child's actions in our society as failure has been essentially prohibited by the various governments of recent times. Continual poor behaviour in schools is rarely effectively punished with expulsion as the paperwork in order to achieve this is long and riddled with loopholes. Exams can be failed but students still manage to get into the college or university of their choice because policy dictates that bums on seats means extra funds and that all students must gain some sort of qualification. We have bred a generation who feel that they are owed something by society, whether they have earned it or not.

A large proportion of the rioters have no idea what consequences their actions will have because they've never had to face consequences in school or out. Police policy appears to be to try and convince young people who are doing something they shouldn't that they are in the wrong and should stop, therefore avoiding a mountain of paperwork that would go hand-in-hand with an arrest and caution. Children aren't stupid, they will continue to do something if they know that they can get away with it, and that includes smashing up a high street and stealing desirable goods.

A large part of this situation has been brought about by policy makers in Whitehall, regardless of the colour of their rosette, who have implemented laws that may seem a good idea on paper, but teach young people that failure and consequences no longer exist. In practise these policies don't really work, as any teacher will tell you.

If any good is to come out of this then let's hope that law and policy changes to give those in authority the powers to actually be an authority, not necessarily to be feared but to be respected. And what better place to start than in schools where if you persistently mess up you are out and children can't refuse to accept punishment as happens regularly at the moment.