aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

@#$%&!

Around here, cursing is frowned upon. In New York I cussed with the best of them. Even there I wondered why and thought that, for my own personal esthetic, I’d rather not. Here I hardly do.

Again, I’m apparently out of synch with the trend. Joe Gandleman points to Reasonable Prudence quoting a BBC report on a new policy in one British school:

Pupils are being allowed to swear at one Northamptonshire secondary school - as long as they limit their use of bad language to five times a lesson.

“Within each lesson the teacher will initially tolerate (although not condone) the use of the f-word (or derivatives) five times and these will be tallied on the board so all students can see the running score,” [assistant headmaster Richard White] wrote in the letter.

“Over this number the class will be spoken to by the teacher at the end of the lesson.”

All is not lost. Parents of children who do not swear in class will receive “praise postcards.”