Please tell me this is a windup

[Theresaholeinyourmind]

Hi all,
Newbie here, lurking for a few weeks now and learning a lot. I haven't felt the need to post before but I just read an article in the Telegraph today about compulsive veil wearing in some schools
and I am beyond disturbed. Apologies for lack of link, can't work out how to do it.
Let me point out that I hate the idea of laws on what you can wear and not wear, was sort of against a UK burka ban as I thought it ultimately wouldn't help the people involved. But this, if true, is a bit much to me. Comments?

I would be interested to know if the teachers in the Muslim school are required to wear 'uniform' (i.e. the full veil) -- I suspect they are.

SGM, great post about school uniforms. I've taught in schools with and schools without uniforms, and agree with everything you said. I much prefer no uniform - as a teacher I saw the children as individuals, it was easy to respect them as such. With uniform they were sweatshirts with faces at the top, and it was much harder to get a sense of their personal identities (although of course I endeavoured to treat all I taught with respect and as individuals in their own right, it was just harder to get a sense of that individuality).

Did anyone watch that documentary about the "mosquito".
The "mosquito" is a device that emmits a high-pitched ringing sound that only teenagers can hear. Young children and adults' ears are a different shape so do not pick it up (a bit like a dog whistle)
They put it outside shops in the UK so that teenagers wouldn't hang around there
So if a teenager wanted to buy a pint of milk for his mum he'd be subjected to a high-pitched shrieking noise. I'm not sure how prevalent it is but they've definitely tried it out.

A spokeswoman for somewhere mentioned that in the docmentary, but only briefly. BAsically the documentary was really chuffed at this new technology.

Apparently it's in use.

" In the UK, over 3,000 have been sold, mainly for use outside shops and near transport hubs.[3] The device is also sold in Australia, France, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Canada and the USA.[4]

The Mosquito has attracted controversy on the basis of human rights. Critics say that it discriminates against young people and infringes their human rights, while supporters argue that making the Mosquito illegal would infringe the human rights of shopkeepers who suffer business losses when "unruly teenagers" drive away their customers."

Wikipedia The Mosquito

Do people have human rights in their business capacities or as individuals though? Nobody has a 'right' to make a profit from a business. There are lots of factors that could affect the profitability of a business, including the management practices, the location, the word on the street about prices or spoiled produce or smell or attitude of the cashier, or availability of parking -- it would be very hard to isolate the presence of teenagers as the one thing that drove away custom and drove down revenue.

But the Mosquito technology does explain why my own teenagers seem sometimes to be paying no attention to what I say....

I think teenage boys suffer from the same sort of problem stemming from the culturally conditioned perceptions of others that teenage girls do, only with the girls the perceptions are inappropriately sexual, whereas with the boys society sees them inappropriately as potentially violent and dangerous.

Oh yes they are definitely in use. Despite being way out of age range, I can hear them (I can also hear those things to scare away badgers). They are awful and actually make me feel physically sick. I have to put my fingers in my ears. Saying that, you have reminded me that the one at my local supermarket must have gone now, as I haven't heard it in a while.

And to add to the really interesting stuff appreciation for SGM's stuff. Very interesting and thought provoking. You've convinced me. I hate the demonisation of our young people too, its a big big problem. And its so hard not to be sucked in. My instinct has started to be to suspect young people, and I have to catch myself and engage rationality. It such a powerful discourse of our time.

Exactly, mathsanxiety, making a profit is not a "human right" FFS

I remember being on a moderately crowded bus with three boisterous but very polite teenage boys. There was an older lady near us giving them fearful/horrified looks and I felt so sad for them. They took no notice but I couldn't help wondering how it would affect them when they did notice. Of course, being completely sure that the youth these days are steering society to anarchy seems to be a popular hobby.

WRT the mosquito device - DH and I can hear them too and we're much closer to 30 than 15. Also seems that once you can hear it you don't 'grow out' of hearing those things. Too bad some shopkeeper is more concerned with the 'yoof' than having us spend money in their shop.