Censors in the classroom?

good grief..

i was born into the world in redhill general and managed to escape at 19..

as a suburb of greater london and a cultural vacume it's suprisingly sheltered living there.. so this is no surprise.. really..



as a teacher of photography sympathies are with simon.. best stay with adams three books in north surrey..

:o/

Just as parents now are unable to photograph or film their childrens school dramas and sports days (which should have led to riots in any healthy society) teachers themselves face suspension and dismissal, not for wanting to discuss a transgender artist, but even for an informative risque joke.

A friend of mine, a good man, a teacher with decades of experience happened to answer a pupil a couple of years ago, when the girl(13) asked

him knowingly what is the significance of a tie (yes, you guessed it, the item of clothing kids are forced to wear round their necks as part of their "uniform").

He simply replied that it was possibly sexual.

Thats all.

But he is a man. Had a woman said the same thing obviously nothing would have happened. It would have gone no further.

It is sexual- culturally accepted as so- there are several festivals on the continent where women are allowed to actually set upon men and cut of their ties- and he knew that, as do millions of other ordinary people. Its a laugh, thats all.

But another girl in the class complained about the joke he made in response to her fellows question.

He was without hesitation suspended. He is still under suspension pending investigation. Has been for two years, and not one member of staff, not one, made any effort to support him or get him reinstated. Noone walked out on strike. Noone picketed the school. Nothing.

So?

Simon Burgess has been one of my lecturers for the past year and I have never found any of his teaching to be offensive or inappropriate.

We have hundreds of works recommended by different lecturers everyday and it is completely up to us if we choose to use these recommendations.

As one previous comment was made, we are all adults and when studying photography, you fully expect to see controversial material.

All of our lecturers at east surrey only recommend the photographers that are relevant to the subject that we are covering at the time.

We are always given a choice and we are usually warned if the material is in someway upsetting.

My god, we have been to exhibitions that were displaying war photography and some of it made people physically sick, but we were always warned and told that we do not have to view it.

As of yet, I do not know all of the details about Simons case, but I truly believe that his intentions were only to recommend a photographer that was relevant to the subject (which I believe to be 'The body and sexual gender')

I am covering this subject this year and hope to see Simon back in the classroom where he belongs.