The week of the teaching union conferences is usually good for a few headlines but this week’s have been truly incredible. Having seen the quiet professionalism of teaching associations abroad, it is always depressing to read headlines which threaten strikes and, in the words of one columnist, confirm the general view of teachers as ‘whingers with long holidays’. Above all we seem to be losing any sense of perspective with regard to young people and their education - junk food, Facebook, cyber-bullying, Army recruitment: you name it, people are in panic mode about the effect on the young. As ever the lack of joined-up thinking is evident: on Monday the headlines are about the Army recruiting vulnerable youngsters with misleading information. On Friday Ed Balls wants state schools to have Cadet Forces…!
When panic sets in, reason flies out of the window and I have followed with particular interest the controversies about Facebook and policing the internet for young people. The gut reaction to ‘ban’ things is as strong as ever and, as I contemplate 30 years as a teacher and 15 as a Head, I know such ‘bans’ are doomed to failure. In fact banning things normally makes them much more alluring to the young and actively encourages the behaviour about which there is so much concern! If we want to get children away from Facebook, the best way is for all us ‘oldies’ to use it. There is nothing more guaranteed to destroy a youth craze than to find your Mum and Dad there too! Why is Glastonbury no longer the festival it once was? Because there are too many over-40s there reliving their youth! Alan Bennett’s play 40 Years On has a lovely exchange between a new head and his retiring predecessor:

Franklin: I think you’ll find your standards a little out-of-date Headmaster.
Headmaster: Of course they are; that’s what standards are for!

The point is made beautifully; each generation has to reinvent itself, and the commonest way for adolescents to do that is to be determined not to be like their parents. Finding out who you are and trying different identities is a key part of the growth of children into young adulthood. Cyber space offers undreamed of opportunities for young people to explore different realities, and many adults are completely thrown by the unfamiliarity of the medium and, as ever, frightened by the unknown. The report this week by Dr Tanya Byron on the risks faced by children from exposure to harmful or inappropriate material on the internet or in video games is a model of good sense. One of the reasons for that is that Dr Byron has a detailed, sympathetic and rational understanding of children; it makes for good reading - all of it, not just the tabloid headlines! Children need guidance and firm boundaries; they want their parents to be just that - not their friends! And helping children understand what is and what is not inappropriate in cyberspace is just one more technological hurdle for parents to engage with, as it is for teachers. Educate them - but please; let’s not make all our lives more difficult by reaching for the dreaded ban! Remember Canute….