The Ghost Road

Some very good points here Melissa.

Melissa Benn

Below, my latest piece in Guardian Comment, on education’s growing culture of overwork, and how it is affecting children and parents.

Do you know a ghost child? Are you possibly raising one? A report this week by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) pinpoints a worrying new phenomenon – the institutionalised infant, a whey-faced creature, stuck in school for 10 hours a day, the child of commuting parents possibly, wandering from playground to desk to after-school club without real purpose, nodding off through boredom and fatigue.

The sad thing is, as yet another timely ATL report brings home, the ghost child is increasingly likely to be taught by the ghost adult – a teacher grey with fatigue and stress, stuck at school for 10 hours or more a day, wandering from duty to duty in playground, classroom or after-school club. Both, it seems, are part of a culture that…

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Author: Dr Jacqueline Baxter

I am Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at The Open University Business School - Department of Public Leadership and Social Enterprise. My interests lie in the areas of trust and accountability in the public services , with a particular interest in education.

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