Go ahead class, make my day... (From Bournemouth Echo)

Go ahead class, make my day...

8:00am Friday 12th March 2010 in

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NEW teachers have been encouraged to act like Clint Eastwood to gain the respect of pupils.

This advice comes from the deputy head of a school in Hampshire who says the key to dealing with unruly pupils is the power of the silent pause and the quiet voice.

Mr Wood said this non-confrontional style is more effective than shouting like Arnold Schwarzenegger, which he says only entertains kids rather than controlling them.

I was amused to read his theories just a couple of days after going off on a major rant myself complete with a liberal sprinkling of the F-word, to a class of 80 or so students in a university politics lecture I was delivering on Tuesday evening, when I caught a couple of them not paying attention.

It was, with hindsight, a rather lethal mixture of Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, though it did have the desired effect.

You could have heard a pin drop for the rest of the hour. Next time I’ll try the quiet menace of the Dirty Harry approach and see if that works too.

l Drivers across the area are cross because local councils are not paying out compensation for pothole damage.

The poor state of many of our roads has been exacerbated by the bad weather leaving many highways in a terrible condition.

But the buzzword in most of our town halls these days is potless, not pothole.