Middle-class parents failing to teach 'give and take'

Guilty middle-class parents are "buying off" their children with computers and TVs and producing a generation that do not know how to behave, a union leader said yesterday.

Some children are not taught how to "give and take", respect authority and take into consideration the needs of others, Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers suggested.

At ATL's annual conference next week, members will debate a motion which calls for schools to be given the means to deal with disruptive pupils.

Part of the radical motion, brought by ATL's Cheshire branch calls for the benefits system to be altered so that "parents of disruptive pupils lose part of their child benefit."

Speaking ahead of the conference, Dr Bousted said parents have a "duty to bring their child up so that they understand how they should behave in school, respecting authority and the right of other pupils in the class to learn."

But some parents "do not support the right of the teacher to teach and to let other people in the class learn."

They fail to create conditions at home that give children the chance to learn to the best of their abilities in school, Dr Bousted said.

Part of the problem is that some children are living "increasingly isolated lives".

"They are not learning about give and take within the family," she said.

Children need to learn how to get on with others and to accept the authority of the teacher in charge of the whole class.

Dr Bousted suggested it is not always poorer parents that are guilty of failing to teach their child these skills.

"Often it's the well-off middle classes that buy off their children through the computer and the TV, that then isolates them within the home, and then they're surprised when their child isn't coming to school ready to learn."