Some of our students' parents were shocked to hear about the amount of Nazi symbols found around our school and on our students' computers at our parent-teacher conference.
I, however, couldn't be less shocked.
I, however, couldn't be less shocked.
I've heard so many of the very same parents complain about the mere presence of immigrants in their sons' and daughters' classes, and seen how they've laughed along to sexist and homophobic jokes in front of their children.
You can't complain about other children's bad behaviour when, at the same time, you're consciously or subconsciously contributing to a system where being xenophobic, casually sexist and proudly homophobic is part of the norm.
We've had a swastika, painted over a David's Star, on one of our school walls, that it took almost a year for the council to remove, and for a long time now, I have found swastikas carved into walls, painted on benches and - as here - drawn on the ground in front of our school. 
As a teacher I'm slowly getting fed up with the false narrative that claims that all our problems can be traced back to a small group of students, when we know all too well that students need strong, positive role models to grow up into responsible, kind and compassionate adults.
They need parents who care about them, who show an interest in their education.
Less than half of all parents turned up at our parent-teacher conference.
Less than half of all parents turned up at our parent-teacher conference.
And really, I refuse to accept that this sudden obsession with the far right as shown here by some of our students this afternoon, isn't the result of our society's slow but steady sanitation of a publicly racist discourse.
Openly racist people are referred to as "members of the alt-right", and instead of challenging the rise of racist parties, we have to listen to politicians as they refer to the left as extremists to get away with their wish to work together with a party founded by former Nazis.
If we, as adults, can't call out racism and challenge it publicly when we see it, how could we possibly expect our students to come to the conclusion that racism is unacceptable?
