And oh gosh- the Starkey thing!
He called him fat- it is a FACT. I doubt he was really hurt by the comment, he was just making a fuss (incredulous voice, head shaking, whiny self pity) for the sake of it. He needs to grow a thicker skin and pay attention. I also doubt whether he's always sweetness and light himself- he insulted the teacher too, who cares who did it first? I thought Starkey said some very sensible things. Teachers feel they have to pander to pupils, whatever they want, and pussyfoot around them to nurture their fragile developing self esteems (like he said- not that they're diminiutive by any means). I bet 50 years ago that was the norm and everyone would have shrugged it off. Here was a bloody interesting lesson and okay, there was a gap between the respected historian and a classroom of wary kids, he could have been more restrained, but it's not like he dealt him a massive blow in the way of insults. Iss he a horrible bully for stating the obvious now? It was a silly joke, of course the boy could move, where's his sense of humour! Fat shouldn't be an insult, anyway, it's a state of being, but that's beside the point. The point is that teachers nowadays know that it is normal to come in, fully expecting a barrage of mockey and laziness directed at them, when they've spent ages preparing lesson plans and whatnot, they have to gage the atmosphere and if they say anything in the slightest cutting or controversial or naive, they get a ton of bricks on their head. Teenagers need to be sat on from time to time, it's natural for them to get too big for our boots sometimes, but why do they take themselves so seriously! Being talked down to never hurt anyone, and they get to do it ourselves when they've done something with themselves and earnt their degrees and doctorates.
Teachers are forever trying to make lessons interesting. School shouldn't have to be slack and interesting, trying desperately to get lazy children to knuckle down, do work, and show a modicum of basic respect (and to ward off the old adage: teachers have earnt respect. They show you endless respect by not blowing up at you when you're mercilessly making fun of them or refusing to take part in their lesson. They should stop saying it's a two way street and just be polite!). If it's boring- do your own research at home. If you can't stand it- tough. For five hours a day, 11 years until you're 16, you should be doing hard work as a foundation for whatever you want to do later.
These kids seem a nice enough bunch (in Jamie's school everyone is trying their hardest to please them, which isn't the way it should be, but just to be clear- the above descriptions were not of them, just typical responses to typical classrooms). My only problem is that they're taking themselves too seriously, and that it takes extreme stuff like this (over the top respect from teachers to pupils) to get them to behave and take school seriously instead. As for the thing about his calling them failures, well, they are. It's a starting place. He was trying to make a point and build on it, not make them feel awful, and if they are clever, they should realise that. I bet they did, they were just capitalising on it for more ammo!
I don't think those kids have got low self esteem- how could they they have made such a commotion and fight back so loudly if they're meant to be so intimidated and cowed!