More than Writers

Years ago, I remember reading a poem  by Allan Ahlberg to my class. It's a wonderful poem and you may have read it yourself. It starts like this: - 'I - am - in - the - slow read-ers' -group - my -broth - er - is - in - the -foot ball - team - my - sis -ter is - a - ser - ver - my lit - tle- brother - er - was a - wise - man - in - the in-fants - christ - mas - play...' The poem always tore at my heart as it sums up that awful sense of being labelled which can so demoralise a person. Even if we do not announce the labels, sometimes our behaviour and lack of tact can communicate them in ways we don't anticipate. We had a good discussion about it. Some years ago, I presented a Parents' Workshop at school based on a book called Toxic Childhood by Sue Palmer. The book talked about the huge melting pot of influences endemic in modern society and how they were affecting children and young people. It mentioned things like too much instant gratification, too little outs...