Secret Diary of an Irish Teacher: How would you like me to discipline your child?

Dear Parents — How would you like me to discipline your child? Would you in fact like me to discipline them at all? There are so many mixed messages out there, I could do with your help.

I’ve taught in wildly different schools. In one, kids walked in file and greeted you formally as you passed. It was (and presumably still is) a military-style Catholic comprehensive in London. Classes lined up twice a day in any weather and wouldn’t move until registers were taken, uniforms checked.