It would appear that the show “Adolescence” has really hit a nerve and a lot school leadership has been watching it over the school holidays and then immediately turning to the most ‘techy’ teacher they know to say that they need to sort it out, so that they don’t end up with a situation like in the show.
Unfortunately, in many cases they seem to be looking for technical solutions when in fact what we should be reviewing what is in the fact the first thing that nearly every teacher gets told day 1 of teacher training, “It’s all about the relationships”. There is nothing new, technologically speaking in this show. It is a classic case of giving children access to people with bad influence. Perhaps in the old days they were easy to spot by the way they dressed or the fact that adult content might have been shown after 9pm and perhaps we didn’t think language was so foreign because we were teenagers ourselves and understood all our secret codes.
Yes, students are using mobile phones when they should not be and sneaking them into their bedrooms. These are issues that the show can be helpful to bring up and talk about. I have always believed in a policy that the internet should only be accessed in public areas of the house and when you can’t supervise it, then there is no need for them to have a device.
However the bigger issue that the show brought up was the lack of trusted adults in their lives and the lack of good role models for these students. This is where teachers, parents and community leaders need to think about what can be done. Students are actively seeking meaningful relationships and social networks are a poor substitute for real friends and we must not forget that a lot of bullying is now both online and offline.
The show also reminded me of what happened to us when I was studying in Grantham College in 1992. This was just after Beverley Allitt known as the “Angel of Death” was arrested and members of her family were studying at the college and we were given firm guidance not to discuss anything to do with the sister and not to bring up the case. One big difference between “Adolescence” and our experience was that everyone felt incredibly sorry for the family and nobody felt the family could have done any better. As far as I know, the family were largely left to get on with their lives.
As seen in the show, the victims family, friends and even the family of the killer are all traumatised and a community is left wondering what could have been done differently. This is what hits hard and if you want to prevent it in your school then it is “relationships” you need to focus on, all day, every day. That is how you build a strong community and hopefully ensure that the next generation become people we can be proud of.
