One of the media's favourite targets is children.  They relish telling us how bad and stupid they are, when, in my experience, most are far from this stereotype. Here is a story that shows just what they are capable of, and how they can help and heal in a way that adults can't.

Years ago, I taught English to a class of 12-13 year olds.  In the class was a boy named Ahmed and he was what was termed an 'elective mute', i.e. he had chosen not to speak since he was 5.  At that age his father died and the shock silenced him, in public anyway.

Halfway through the year I set the class a short presentation, where each boy and girl had to give a 3 minute talk on their favourite place.  I was well aware that Ahmed would not, could not perform the task and so I excused him from it.

On the day of the presentations, a boy named Rizwan stood up to speak - with Ahmed at his side.

Rizwan gave a lively talk about Spain, showing us pictures of the cities and countryside.  He had been there the year before with his family and he obviously loved it. He ended his talk by urging us to visit Spain, with the words:

"And that's why you should all save up and go to......."

He paused and then gestured to Ahmed, who said: "Spain."

His first word in public for 7 years. The class applauded wildly while I held back my tears.  After the lesson, I detained Rizwan and said to him: "What you did today with Ahmed was a beautiful thing to do.  I couldn't have done that - only one of his peers, his friends could, and you did."

Rizwan smiled and replied: "It was ridiculous him not talking.  He just needed a push!"

Little by little Ahmed began to talk to others, until he could confidently read aloud in class.

Children can be cruel and wounding, but, as my story illustrates, they can also be kind and healing.

Humour can play dual roles in a school - getting a point across without anger, and establishing good connections between pupils, between teachers and pupils, and between teachers.

However, humour in schools today is usually regarded with suspicion, as a weapon to undermine authority.  When I asked a secondary school pupil recently what the 'atmosphere' was like at his school, he replied: "The Laughter Police are everywhere!"

Humour in school is far too huge a topic to cover properly in a blog, although I will write about it occasionally. 

I heard a story years ago from an old soldier from the East End of London, a story that perfectly shows how a sharp piece of wit can also make a good point - and in this case, got the boy in question acquitted:

After World War II, many sites in London, especially the heavily bombed East End, were dangerous and it was forbidden to play on them.  Of course, many kids roamed these sites and played football on the clear patches.  The police warned them and in particular a boy (let's call him Leo) who consistently ignored the police warnings.

One day, a police officer saw Leo lining up a ball to kick into goal between two rocks.  The officer saw red and arrested Leo for flouting the law.

In the magistrates' court the next day, the chief magistrate began by saying: "Yesterday, you were caught playing football on a prohibited site."

Leo interjected: "No, I wasn't playing football."

The magistrate continued: "According to the police officer's notes, you were going to play football - and going to play is as bad as playing, and you will be fined."

"Well," said Leo, "if going to play is as bad as playing, then I suppose that going to pay the fine is as good as paying."

Through clenched eyes I watched Brat Camp on Channel 4 last week.  It was difficult to believe that it was a documentary and not a deliberately sickening drama concocted by a hateful mind.

When it comes to crime and punishment, American ideas and attitudes are at best idiotic and ineffective, and at worst sadistic and evil.  To watch ten year olds being constantly bullied and belittled simply because they did not conform to their deplorable parents' concept of control, is to enrage my sense of justice let alone compassion.

What lies behind such barbaric behaviour is vengeance. It's a kind of scapegoating, where the punishers envy the 'rebels', but know that they are too spineless to rebel themselves - but of course are very brave in uniform beating the helpless.  Hence the severe hostility towards non-conformists.  They are obsessed with punishment alone and are not remotely interested in why people behave the way they do.

This year is the centenary of the establishment of The Little Commonwealth in Dorset, a 'reformatory' financed by the Earl of Sandwich and run by Homer Tyrrell Lane, one of the greatest educators who ever lived.  Lane was an American who achieved a near zero recidivist rate among his 'young offenders'.

So in the last 100 years, the American authorities in education have not only not progressed in their attitudes and methods, but have gone backwards into medieval torture mentality.

The fact that the US state and federal governments permit these camps to exist is a crime in itself.

Truancy is a barometer of the quality of a country's school system.  Scandinavian countries have had the lowest truancy rates (especially Finland) globally for ages, mostly because they have made their schools more humane, interesting and enjoyable - sensibly avoiding the ills of authoritarian systems.

The answer to truancy by governments in the UK has always been the equivalent of putting a plaster over a septic wound.  It's either "Let's form a Truancy Police Force" or "Let's penalise the parents". The authorities seem incapable of understanding the real, the only solution to truancy is to deal with the bloodstream and not the unsightly skin eruption.

Quite often, the 'troublemakers' in schools are the most intelligent pupils, so bored and frustrated by school that they make a game of it, or else truant.  Of course, there are many reasons for truancy, including escape for those who feel belittled or are bullied at school, as well as those who like the title 'rebel'.  Whatever reason, schools would benefit if they shed their 'Us V Them' mentality and made them 'Us' places only.

I know that the following is anecdotal evidence, but I feel it sums up an entire attitude of pupils towards school and truancy:

I once bumped into a former pupil, a boy now 20 years old.  He had truanted persistently in the last two years of his school life. I hasten to add that I taught this boy in Year 8 only.

I asked him why he had truanted so much.  His answer was thought-provoking:

I realised in Year 10 that I was able to teach myself, that I could read all the books on the syllabus by myself, and not waste so much time at school doing useless things, being bored, and playing 'games' with the teachers.  I only attended school when I had questions for the teachers.

He then told me he had passed his final exams with top grades - having spent 90% of the time truanting.