Crikey, chaps, it’s time for a swearing lesson

6th July 2001, 1:00am

The Sun

This week’s edition of You Couldn’t Make It Up comes from Cornwall, where children are being given swearing lessons.

“The object is to get pupils to look at their language and see if they know what they are saying. A lot of swearwords are homophobic, racist and offensive to women,” said teacher Phil Gibson.

Ah, ha. That explains it. Of course we should discourage children from gratuitous abuse. But an obsession with homophobia, racism and sexism has been elevated to a religion in many schools to the point where actually teaching pupils to read and write comes a distant second.

Richard Littlejohn, July 3

You’ve reached your limit of free articles this month

Register for free to read more

You can read two more articles on Tes for free this month if you register using the button below.

Alternatively, you can subscribe for just £1 per month for the next three months and get:

Unlimited access to all Tes magazine content
Exclusive subscriber-only articles
Email newsletters

Subscribe now Register

Already registered? Log in

You’ve reached your limit of free articles this month

Subscribe to read more

You can subscribe for just £1 per month for the next three months and get:

Unlimited access to all Tes magazine content
Exclusive subscriber-only articles
Email newsletters

Subscribe now

This is 0 of 1

Now only £1 a month for 3 months

Subscribe for just £1 per month for the next 3 months to get unlimited access to all Tes magazine content. Or register to get 2 articles free per month.

Subscribe now Register

Already registered? Log in