Erin O’Connor at Critical Mass has a fascinating and yet disturbing post about a way of dealing with student profanity…by allowing it.
An English high school has decided to cope with the problem of student profanity by tolerating it. Beginning this fall, students will be allowed to curse at their teachers, just so long as they don’t say “f — k” more than five times during a lesson. Part of the new policy involves keeping a running tally on the blackboard of how many times the word “f — k” has been uttered during a given lesson–a practice that promises to distract students.
I for one would feel this as a complete abandonment on the part of the principal of any acknowledgment even of my authority as teacher.