The failure of the police in classrooms

Our cousins from Morocco told us that at school they received physical punishment, whether it was a shove from time to time or blows with a ruler on the palm of the hand. We, who had loving and close teachers, were dying of fear imagining those punishments, but it was even more terrible to know that if the boy or girl came home complaining about a teacher's slap, what happened was that the father gave them another without even asking what had caused the reprimand. Fortunately, that way of linking violence with teaching has long been left behind and no one believes that blood is needed to make letters enter any human being. In that context, the authority of teachers was imposed by force and it was fear that led to respecting it. Rereading Montserrat Roig's stories about terrifying nuns who educated her is a good way to understand this world that some have never experienced.

The problems in educational centers today have nothing to do with that institutionalized mistreatment of students, but with the difficulty many teachers have in maintaining authority throughout the school hours. The erosion of the figure of the teacher and their place in society began decades ago, and we went from never questioning it to always doing so. Nowadays, those who dedicate themselves to teaching seem to have to be at the service of the students and their families, that everything should be adapted to the needs of those who attend class, and to turn education into a kind of dispensary. Reality is complex and diversity has multiplied, as have the plans and programs for inclusion that in many cases only exist on paper. Educational policies seem to want to treat students more like customers than citizens who have the right to receive quality training. And if there is school failure because what is implemented does not work, instead of reviewing and changing the decisions made from above, strategies are adopted to mask the results. The reluctance to make students who have not reached the level repeat is an example. Also the latest basic skills tests in which the written expression part has been eliminated, which has been replaced by multiple-choice questions. Written expression by marking crosses, this is the level of those who evaluate the system.

With all this, bureaucracy, useless and absurd training, individualized attention to ridiculous extremes, and constant concern for parental reactions have turned what is one of the most beautiful vocations that exist into a hell. The urbanistic segregation of the immigrant and poorer population leads to school segregation, which results in an accumulation of conflict situations in the same center and an ever-widening gap between poor schools and rich schools that completely refutes the assumption of quality and universal education. Teachers have long been overwhelmed, having to face situations that have nothing to do with their work: precariousness of families, violence, and the penetration of extremist discourses of all kinds that challenge the value system that an institution as fundamental for democracy as the school must transmit. 

If there are centers that have requested the presence of Mossos d’Esquadra, it must be because they need them. We would have to see what happens there to understand the decision. But be that as it may, having police in school constitutes a resounding failure of educational policies. After all, security forces are the ones who have the exclusive right to exercise force. Even if they go in plain clothes.