Media politics and idiotic behaviour in classrooms

So the Associate Minister of Education shoved a sawn-off tennis ball into a students mouth back in the early 80's at a Dunedin Secondary School - ye olde "mute puppet" humilation. And the New Zealand media is wallowing gleefully in the muck.

It's an interesting story to me. I went to Wellington College, a single-sex state school with what you might describe as a "muscular Christian" tradition. The limits of behaviour reached in this kind of environment are very seldom accepted by most adults - I remember my parents totally refused to believe some of the things I tried to describe to them were true, things that were going on every day at school when I was there. Everyday New Zealand life must make is impossible to conceieve the ridiculous and extreme situations that derive from radical young men being placed in such a disciplinary environment.

All and all, my experiences with teachers dishing out discipline were pretty tame really. I can really only remember having sharp edged woodworking tools thrown at me, and murdered with endless push ups and sit ups to punish bad behaviour. At secondary school, I do remember being humilated, being made to stand on my desk, above the whole class, while the teacher used me as an example for a little exposition on how to be a dickhead. Although he was probably far too smart to stray beyond the borderlines into verbal abuse - I wonder, how common must this be (or at least, have been) in New Zealand schools? I always just assumed that's what it was always like. I mean - the kind of beatings that a lot of people would have recieved in their home enviroment surely make most abuse at school pale in comparison.

David Benson-Pope - yeah, this reputed behaviour as a teacher sounds totally unacceptable. What kind of irresponsible idiot would actually try to discipline students in such a way? But then Rodney Hide's priveledged little parliamentary stunt was nothing more than a measured and ridiculous stratagem - how could anyone possibly take this seriously? And so, my problem is that this aint actually the real problem. The real problem is how utterly pointless the media contrivance of this situation is becoming.

It is ELECTION YEAR. People please! Wake the fuck up. The budget is coming in a matter of days. There are serious social issues, and important policy debates that need to be publicly discussed. Do I see any of that headlining the New Zealand daily media this week? Not really. Hmmm.

More mediocrity is the last thing we need in this country right now. But that seems to be what we're getting. Should we really have high expectations for MP's? Should we just forget about having expectations at all? Grubby, pathetic, New Zealand politics is.