The challenges of talking abt Boarding School. A THREAD.
I checked in this eve w/ @heraldscotland website, to see what kind of response @NeilMackay article was drawing from a non-Twitter crowd. I thought I'd share my insights.
@SimonPartridge @axrenton
heraldscotland.com/news/19529579.…
2. Robert Sim focuses on the "particularly shocking" implications for political leaders, reflecting on what happens when they lack empathy due to childhood trauma. I agree. We need to think more about this. And about the impact in other networks - media, banking, business.
3. L WS makes links to Residential Schools in Canada, with First Nation children"kidnapped & enslaved by the Catholic Church". @eperryinsights, based in Canada, has made this link earlier today, noting that the structure of those schools was based on that of UK boarding schools.
4. Douglas McKenzie recognises the misery of the stories. He was a boarder in the 1970s & recalls the teachers condoning the beatings pupils inflicted on one another. "I cannot ever remember any teacher punishing anyone for bullying and certainly not prefects."
5. William Lawrence went to boarding school at 8. He got on with it. He thinks t opportunities of BS "are enormous". And he doesn't like me. "The Dr's grievances are another pathetic attempt to highlight [her] misguided opinion that all people who attend BS are over privileged."
6. Jackie Dawson has 25yrs experience of psychotherapy w/ ex-boarders. She uses @nickduffell term "privileged abandonment", noting that it produces "bullies or bumblers". She puts parents' choice forthrightly: "A family-based childhood is traded for t hothousing of entitlement."
7. I wanted to highlight these responses because @NeilMackay makes the point in his article that the Boarding School Survivors Movement views what is happening as a kind of #MeToo Movement. Hidden stories are pouring out. Controversy inevitably follows. heraldscotland.com/news/19529579.…
8. One form of pushback will be Legacy: "This is all the past. We don't treat children this way anymore." Well, the @mandatenow campaign makes t point that, actually, staff in private institutns are still not legally required to report t kinds of acts the public assumes they are.
9. Another pushback will come via t manipulation skills that elite boarding schools hone in their pupils. @BeardRichard tries to help us see this in his new book on BS, due out later this month: Sad Little Men. In short: Johnson's hair-ruffling is a ruse. theguardian.com/education/2021…
10. In 1950s, when Robertson wanted parents to be able stay w/ children in hospital, t medical establishment pushed back.
In 1870s, when Lord Shaftesbury wanted the societal practice of putting children up chimneys stopped, homeowners pushed back. historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Hist…
11. In 2006, when civil rights activist Tarana Burke started a campaign against sexual violence, which became the #MeToo Movement, pushback came from men.
"Power & privilege doesn’t always have to destroy and take. It can be used to serve & build.” theguardian.com/world/2018/nov…
12. As the voices highlighting the harm of BS grow louder, so too will the pushback. Who will it come from? Those who benefit from that system.
So what can be done? Start by just keeping a look out for the resistance. See how many different forms of it you can spot.
13. Yes, it is true: not every child who attended Boarding School suffered abuse. That's a relief, isn't it? And not all 6-yr-olds recall pining dreadfully for their parents. But none of this is the point, is it?
It is time to stop silencing t many stories of pain that do exist.
14/end. My thanks go to journalist @NeilMackay for his determined efforts to give a platform to t courageous ppl willing to speak out about t pain of Boarding School. And to the @heraldscotland who did not put his article behind a paywall. THANK YOU both.
heraldscotland.com/news/19529579.…

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More from @suzannezeedyk

24 Aug
Ok. Let’s hv a THREAD on Baby Laughter…and what it tells you abt baby brains…and about development of the human stress system…and the biology of relationships.
I know ths interaction looks cute & sweet. And it is. And yet, it is *so much more* when you know what to look for.
2. At .02 we have a baby totally focused on Daddy’s face. And also having a new SENSORY experience - hearing! Big serious eyes. She can maintain her posture. This is a brain, seriously at work integrating stuff! Neurons are firing in the brain big time, building pathways!
3. By .04, the baby is finding this new hearing thing pleasurable. She’s laughing with the delight. The new SENSORY experience is *comfortable*. Baby Laughter is a massive clue as to what babies’ bodies are experiencing. That’s why researcher @czzpr studies it.
Read 20 tweets
22 Aug
THREAD on Boarding Schools.
@NeilMackay story features in this morn’s @heraldscotland . It covers FOUR pages. FOUR. Full of voices recounting the horrific abuse they suffered in such institutions, at the hands of other children, facilitated by adults who knew. ImageImageImageImage
2. I contributed to this piece. My key point is this: “If a large proportion of our political leaders experienced this - especially early boarding, which creates emotional fragility - then does that mean our country is led by emotionally damaged people? If so, we ALL suffer.” Image
3. My colleague @SimonPartridge is also quoted. Simon co-authored with me the set of articles on ACES & attachment published this summer. He said this: “Boarding school created attachment problems & could lead to PTSD.” Image
Read 10 tweets
19 Aug
THREAD on drop-offs & pick-ups.
I've thought about this article all yesterday eve & this morn. It suggests that it is better to keep parents out of nurseries, because children settle better. The phrase "Ofsted finds" implies data were systematiclly collected & evaluated. Not so.
2. I regularly say that "drop off is the most important moment in a child's day". That's because the way that separation is handled by adults produces biological changes in children. That's what attachment theory teaches us.
3. If we really understd attachmnt theory, we wd recognise how crucial drop-off is. We wd conduct research studies on it. Best practice guidance wd be written & published in policy frameworks. That doesn't happen. Nursery drop-off practice is informed mostly by tradition & habit.
Read 15 tweets
8 Aug
THREAD: Boarding school
Today's @guardian contains an excerpt from the latest book soon to be published on the emotional devastation caused to so many boys by early boarding school -- boys that grow into the leaders of this country.
theguardian.com/education/2021…
2. "Several times a year, our attachments to home & family were broken. We lost everything – and we could cry if we liked but no one would help us. So, LATER IN LIFE, WHEN WE SAW OTHER PEOPLE CRY, WE FELT NO GREAT NEED TO GO TO THEIR AID." theguardian.com/education/2021…
3. When you have a government filled with leaders who do not have the empathy to feel the pain of people they govern, then you hv an emotionally corrupt political system. Boarding school becomes dangerous not just for the damaged boys grown into men. It is dangerous for everyone.
Read 8 tweets
5 Aug
A thread that I think lots of authors will like to see. I was at @TIGERS_UK today and there were lots of boxes in the corner, with @Waterstones written on . “Oooh! What’s in those??” I asked nosily. Here follows only a wee taste of the answer! Image
2. Your books were in the boxes at @TIGERS_UK, @childinmind & @TheBabyExpert ! Image
3. Your books were in the boxes too, @Markfinnis @BDPerry & @DrDanSiegel . I understand the order was placed because I’ve read from each of these during training events with the @TIGERS_UK team over the past year. Image
Read 5 tweets
14 Apr
THREAD. What does the science tell us happens whn children start formal schooling too young (like early 4)? That’s what t @GiveTimeScot campaign, led by Scottish parents, is trying hard to get the rest of us to ask too. Here are some insights. Note: it’s not comfortable reading.
2. Children who are the youngest in their class struggle to make friends. 2019 study.
“Worse development of social skills and relationships in the long-term, which affects well-being and success in the labour market.” independent.co.uk/life-style/you…
3. Youngest children in a class more diagnosed with ADHD. 2019 study.
“Younger children may find it harder to concentrate in class, leading to increased diagnoses of hyperactivity = inferior academic performance & poorer peer relationships.”
webmd.com/add-adhd/news/…
Read 16 tweets

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