Satnam and Susan’s Website

The NASUWT (a UK teachers’ union) is asking people to sign a petition banning teachers and school governors from  becoming members of the BNP  (a UK racist political party): http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/SelectSurveyNET/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=76KJ9n2. It is not a good idea to support such a petition.

Although the policies of the BNP are thoroughly repellent, it is currently a legal organization and has won political representation in local government and in EU elections. Teachers should be allowed to join the party and their motivation for doing so may lie in racist views they harbour towards non-white people in the UK. However, part of being a professional involves setting aside your personal, political and religious views in order to get your job done to the highest standards. I expect all teachers to show this level of professionalism whether they are members of the BNP or not. Likewise for racist members of the Labour or Conservative party. To ban teachers who hold an unacceptable political affiliation implies a lack of faith in the professionalism of such teachers. I think such an implication is very unwise and we should assume the best of all of our teachers. Only in situations where there is proof of lack of professionalism should there be action taken against a specific individual for a specific act.

We all desire to live in a civilized society. To me being civilized is about how to live in a positive and constructive way with people who are strangers to me and who do not share my values or beliefs but with whom I need to work with or live with or co-habit an island with. Civilization is about respecting other peoples’ views and opinions and rights even when I don’t believe in them myself. Civilization is exactly the opposite of what the BNP stands for. A civilized society would let the BNP express itself and have enough respect for society to draw its own conclusions and judgements rather than take the patronizing view that lots of stupid people will vote for the BNP because of their propaganda.

I’ve come across highly charged arguments against the BNP as a political party, its inclusion on Question Time, and the teachers’ petition. I believe a part of this is due to a “displacement activity”. I think that many people in the UK feel guilt about their fairly racist society and would like to create a convenient partition of racists and non-racists where racists are members of the BNP and members of the main parties are pure as snow about race. Now we can point the finger at a racist group of people and by implication suggest that the rest of society is not racist. Racism occurs in many guises and to many degrees and if we are all brutally honest many of us have felt or expressed racist views at some point (has anyone heard the song Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist from Avenue Q?). I believe there are many people with unacceptable racist views in the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. If we want a serious discussion of racists and racism then we need to look to the behaviour of our wider society rather than using the BNP as scapegoats to help alleviate our Guardian reader guilt.

Speaking personally, I was certainly taught by racist teachers. I grew up suffering from physical and verbal racist abuse in a rough part of Glasgow so I do not take the issue of racism lightly yet I still strongly believe in the right of racists to teach as long as they are professional. I have also worked in tertiary education and I have worked as a volunteer teacher at the elementary school level and I think I have done a lot of good for the students and kids. However, if the parents could veto teachers with opinions they do not like then I would certainly have been banned! Once you are done with banning teachers with racist views then how about going after teachers who belong to certain (or any) religions? Or teachers who do not believe in evolution? Or teachers who look like they may have been hippies in the past and smoked too much dope? Where do you want to draw the line? I don’t want to draw the line: I want to believe in professionalism.

As a parent it is natural to want to control every aspect of your child’s educational experience. You don’t want your kids taught by racist teachers so you push for banning BNP membership for teachers. This hardly solves the problem since the vast majority of people with racist views belong to the three main UK political parties. Children are much more likely to pick up racist views from their peers. Shall we start to interrogate the other kids in the school and their parents? Before you know it you will be home schooling your children which is likely to do them much more harm than going to school in an imperfect situation.

Let’s be civilized. Let’s respect teachers’ right to join the BNP. But let us also expect professional conduct from each and every teacher. That way we can live in a society where we expect the best of each other rather than assume the worst.