An excellent opinion piece condemning maths teacher Jeremy Forrest and perceptively discusses the sometimes misleading maturity of a 15-year old.
This is utterly inexcusable — no matter what denials or explanations Mr Forrest offered his superiors, and no matter what story Megan may have told. For as every teacher and parent of a 15-year-old girl knows, they are simultaneously the most complicated, delightful, infuriating, charming, cunning and confusing creatures you are ever likely to encounter.
For a start, they usually look much older than 15: they’re often not only taller than us but, superficially, at least, seem more confident, too. They know exactly how to cut us down to size with a withering comment about how old-fashioned we are, and seize every opportunity to patronise us.
But the parent of a teenager learns not to be fooled. Hard experience teaches us that the minute we marvel at how adult they’ve become, they’ll throw a tantrum more extreme than anything they managed in the toddler years.
‘What’s the matter?’ we wheedle, pathetically, as they stomp off to their room, radiating fury and contempt.
Her mother says Megan’s still afraid of the dark. Her friends report that she ‘can be quite vulnerable . . . she needs to be reassured quite a bit.’
Topical Teaching 