Daily Mail obsession!

She only 'censored' what was brought into her school. What the staff read at home was their business.

Would you want porn mags to be allowed in the staff room? No. Do you want to see photos of enhanced breasts leering at you across the staff room. No. Thus far no problem. Ban the sun and the star from workplaces.
DM on more shaky ground. But can you always trust teachers to make sensible professional judgements about use of media? I have been party to teacher disciplinary issues. Oh the stories I could tell you if I were less discrete!

Discreet.

I'm reading a book about servants at the moment - even in the 1920's that rag the Daily Mail was banging on about benefit dodgers - some sort of benefits had been passed in Parliment then and the DM was concerned that servants would take their benefits rather then work.
It's main aim in life seems to be putting the wind up people by harping on about the same old subject, the aforesaid benefit dodgers, immigration etc etc.
We get free papers in our dining room at work and I have complained that we never get a decent paper, it's always the Sun,Star,Mirror and the Mail. Never the Indie or Guardian. My Manager , who is a bit of a joker, put a copy of the 'I' on the table with my name on it -

So generous, your manager, dorset! Spending a whole 20p on you. Wow!

I have to say I am amazed that when nanaej said she had banned certain newspapers from her staff room there were no howls of protests from all of you who claim to support civil liberties, or is it because the newspapers were those whose views you disagreed with?

I once worked for a company who tried to stop an employee bringing a copy of Socialist Worker in to read, in the staff room, during his break. Although I disagreed with the views expressed in that paper I argued, successfully, that the employer had no right to dictate what the employee read in his own time.

I still think banning a paper from a staff room is excessive. The paper is widely read and popular and does not break any laws. And that includes The Sun and Star. I would not buy a paper published by the Murdoch's - and some of their papers have operated beyond the law, but I would not ban anyone from bringing one into the house or have forbidden my staff, when I was in work from bringing it into the office.

We often used "The Sun" in English lessons with older students (GCSE and "A" Level Language) to demonstrate the contrast between tabloid and broadsheet writing. Interestingly enough, it is more difficult to write in the style of a tabloid than that of a broadsheet, because of a)the deceptive simplicity of the language used and b) the cliches and expected adjectives used. And the headlines are often very clever. "The Mail" uses many of these techniques, augmented with a more sophisticated vocabulary. Sorry, turned back into a teacher there!

I skim through DH's "The Times" each day before removing the crosswords, then pick and choose between online papers when I feel like it. These days, I prefer Radio 4 for most news - because I have it on a lot.

A school is different from other work places. I wouldn't ban any paper on the grounds of its political stance, but I would be unhappy if teachers were bringing pictures of half naked women into the school. Yes, I know the famale body is beautiful, which is why I don't like to see it used as sexual titilation. I have no doubt that many boys will buy it for themselves, or look at their father's copy, but the school cannot be responsible for that.

Ariadne, I used to do the same with my Access Students on my media studies press module. The manipulation of language in headlines takes considerable skill.

But Greatnan don't you think that would be the start of a very slippery slope? Where would you draw the line? As long as the publication is kept in the STAFF room, where presumably children are not allowed then what is the problem.

There are many publications which I personally find distasteful but as long as they are legal to ban them from a work place is surely infringing on someone's civil liberties.

Children are not supposed to enter a staff room, but many do. I would draw the line at pictures of naked women which are meant just to titilate - not the kind that are in National Geographic, for example.
A school is not just a work place for teachers.

We used to bring in The Sun, Mirror and DM for groupwork sessions with offenders and give them the task of composing a headline article with illustrations, about the offences they had committed. Literate offenders would write it out, and the others would provide illustrations. All would complain that their offences would be sensationalised and incorrectly reported, and several had been reported on in those papers. When asked whether they believed what was written in most newspapers, many still said 'yes' and they would still buy those papers. We would explain Attribution Theory in basic terms i.e. 'others are to blame for their actions, I am not - things happen beyond my control.' It's very difficult to get the message in - many people generally believe anything that is written persuasively unless it is written about THEM!

The Sun and D Mail were often left in the staff room (Infant & nursery school) by the people who bought them. The staff room, as in many schools, was frequently used by children for teaching as space was at a premium. Staff could keep them in their bags in their lockers out of sight. Never saw any other papers left lying around but if they had inappropriate images/headlines I would have said the same. Perhaps the staff who read other papers had more sense than to leave them where children might be upset by them (images /headlines..not the paper itself!)

I had a responsibility to keep children safe and I think exposing them to sensationalist images/headlines to be emotionally damaging for young children. I totally agree in using the press to teach youngsters about the use of media. I am a big media studies fan and do not agree with banning papers or books per se but I think informed choices is what it is all about and protecting innocence is also important.

Surely nanaej, if children were going to use the staff room as a teaching space then all that would be needed is for the staff who read the newspapers you disapproved of to be asked to put the newspapers out of sight, and if they didn't then to remove them yourself and dispose of them. I would hope that the teachers shared your commitment to keeping children safe and would happily comply with the request to put the papers out of sight.

If a publication is legal then I am uncomfortable at the thought that someone would ban it as this would be imposing their views on other people.

FlicketyB says she would not buy anything published by Murdoch - obviously that is her right but lets take it a step further. She goes to her employer and demands any Murdoch publication be banned from her workplace because she finds it offensive. Her employer, not willing to stand up to a strong willed woman, agrees. Let's then say that she belongs to a club - she goes to the committee running the club and demands that any Murdoch publication be banned from the club premises. The committee, only doing the job in their spare time and not wanting to waste any time on it, agree. So there we have perfectly legal publications banned from two places because one person dislikes them (sorry FlicketyB I'm sure you are not that intolerant - just using it as an example).

Now this may seem like an extreme scenario but once we start allowing people to ban legal publications they personally disapprove of, there is no knowing where it will end.

Sometimes the rights of the individual have to be balanced by the need to protect children. 'Top shelf' magazines are legal, but who would want them in a staff room?

I can't think that any teacher would take a "top shelf" magazine into school, if he/she did so then I am sure the other teachers would express their disapproval and ask that he/she made sure it was kept out of sight, not to mention the detrimental effect it could have on his/her career.

What is the difference between a Page Three Girl and a model in 'Nuts'? Oh, yes, in the Sun the girls are able to comment on world affairs!

I find each publication as distasteful as the other, however, it is not for me, or anyone else, to impose my views on another.

Nanaej said: 'I banned the D M(ail) and The Sun from the staff room because of their poorly substantiated sensationalist headlines.'

Nothing about Page 3 girls.

sunseeker I was the teacher expressing my disapproval of the headlines and images I found offensive and inappropriate for an infant school environment. You will see that the ban was in having them on show in the staff room. I believe that people can read what they want.
We also had a staff dress code that did not allow slogans on tee shirts/badges etc expressing political views.

She mentioned images. There have been some really horrific photos. I gather they are toned down a bit for the print version, but I am sure there would still be some that would upset children.

I also once found a supply teacher reading The Telegraph when she was in charge of a class!! I sent her straight home and took the class myself! (ps it was not The Telegraph I disapproved of!)

Again, the remedy would be for the publications to be kept out of the sight of children, not ban them.

Yes the headlines were often crass and accompanied by awful photos Ana