Are kids alright or all wrong?

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By Sean Coughlan BBC News education reporter, at the NASUWT conference Queuing up to get excluded?

"What planet is he on?"

The incredulous question, put to the NASUWT teachers' union conference, was prompted by the claim in Sir Alan Steer's report that behaviour in school is improving.

The questioning teacher, Jim Porter, was putting forward a motion calling for urgent action to tackle the problem of poor behaviour in the classroom.

Mr Porter told the conference that there were too many children arriving in school who did not know how to behave themselves in any social situation, whether it was the school or a restaurant.

A succession of speakers shared his anxieties about deteriorating behaviour - backed by a survey from the union claiming that five full weeks of learning are lost each year in secondary schools because of disruptive pupils.

Jules Donaldson said that youngsters were queuing up to get into the "withdrawal units" for the poorly behaved, not least because they stood a chance of getting tea and toast.

Arthur McGarrigle warned of a pernicious "undermining of teachers' esteem and authority".

Putting it into a wider context, Andrew Gallagher said that schools had to cope with the outcome of junk food and weak parenting.

"I'm fed up with parents who say if there are any problems - contact his gran or his sister," he told delegates.

But what did Sir Alan, the government's behaviour expert, say about this gap in perception?

'Not the enemy'

While his report, accepted by the government, sets out a picture of improving behaviour, teachers at this conference and others have been reporting anti-social pupils, feckless parents and schools that need to hire bouncers.

Cutting the figure of an avuncular grandfather, Sir Alan rejected the level of negativity in how young people's behaviour was represented. It wasn't a picture he recognised.

"We do not have a crisis in behaviour in school - it is not true that young people are universally ghastly.

The word 'feral' is a disgusting word to use about children. Let's be accurate, a large majority are well behaved Sir Alan Steer

"There are problems, but there have always been problems. There are a minority of children who behave badly, but we need to deal with it in an intelligent way.

"They are not the enemy within."

So where did this gaping difference in perception come from?

"There is a danger in demonising the young," he said. Rather than talking about the bright, motivated youngsters, he took issue with the angry language used to describe young people.

"The word 'feral' is a disgusting word to use about children. Let's be accurate, a large majority are well behaved."

And he emphasised that for many youngsters, particularly for those from troubled families, schools were a safe haven.

'Seen and not heard'

Schools' Secretary Ed Balls, in his speech to delegates, emphasised how important behaviour in school was to parents.

He also talked about the need for other adults to intervene outside school when there was bullying - such as bus drivers.

But would Sir Alan intervene if he saw youngsters misbehaving? He said that in an "ideal world" he would like to think so.

Do we live in an ideal world? Is it ideal to have a world where bus drivers need written instructions before they stop children fighting?

Is it ideal when adults are afraid of children?

As a teacher said, it was becoming a case of the adults who were expected to be seen and not heard.

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed by wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

Sir Alan quoted this himself. It was written by Plato, 2,400 years ago.