My son's football coach was telling me that they are not allowed to hug the kids, even if they are crying and injured.

I think we need to educate kids to speak out about any 'bad' touching and not listen to threats from sinister adults, rather than banning adults from any physical contact. It's not as if the dodgy adults are going to listen to this advice. It is just to protect innocent adults from suspicion and false allegations, after all.

Well said Blizzie.
Educating about "bad touching" is good.
There is "bad touching".
There is "therapeutic touching".
A blanket "no touching" sounds quite appalling to me.


I find it very difficult to imagine teaching musical instruments without any contact whatsoever.
After all a bit of triple-tonguing never hurt anybody. 

I'm not Googling that!! 

So the Musicians Union and other children's organizations wish to put an end to this?


I remember the sheer delight and joy I felt when hugging my music teacher after a particularly difficult musical conquest which sent tingles up and down my spine.
Do they expect people now to use some sort of transference? Or just copy pictures?


http://www.guardian.co.uk/educ...ve-charities-warning


Interestingly I notice that the  videos referred to in the above article have been withdrawn from YouTube.

Can I swear? Bollo*ks. PE teachers have to touch you, Music teachers have to touch you. Can we get back to some sort of sanity? The fact that pupils now have the upper hand over their teachers is one of the problems we face. No respect (I know that sound arcaic, but so what? ) no comeback for bad behaviour, what can teachers do? What can society do? We are in the hands of the next generation and I hope I can trust my instincts that kids aren't quite as bad as they are made out to be.

Of course you can cologne - especially as you do it so stylishly. 
I like the points you make.

Children seemingly having the upper hand is a good point.

Is it that they are concerned that some pupils may try and accuse teachers of something more sinister?
My aunt was a primary schoolteacher until her retirement last year and in the last few years of her teaching she was instructed not even to raise her voice at a pupil.

I used to work with special Ed. kids.  One day, one of my students was more naughty than usual, had several time-outs during the day.  When it was time to go home, he knew I was more exasperatted with him than usual and just held his arms out for a hug.  I told him that sometimes you need a hug when you don't really deserve it.  It was one of the best hugs I ever had and I remember it.

There just isn't enough hugging in the world!

Well said Suzi

The world is slowly turning into a very depressing place indeed.

They're here

I agree with Blizzie post..

Had a very very difficult relationship with the music teacher at my daughters school...   in a "we will not put up with your shit... we will do battle with you & win biatch" kind of way!


So was expecting this thread to be something a bit different to what it is...      I have just steamed in here... all guns blazing, ready to swap stroppy music teacher stories...    


I was all fired up with nowhere to rant !

Rant away Ditty, don't let this thread stop you. 

Hahah Ditty

When I learnt how to play the flute my teacher wasn't touchy-feely... suppose it depends what instrument you learn.

Be hard teaching golf without physical contact eh

My music teachers at both first and junior schools were ace, I loved them to bits. High school music teacher never shaved her legs and I didn't trust her.

To teach a child to play an instrument, sometimes you have to have contact (as shown in the photo above) if the child is having problems with it. To play a violin, you have to hold the bow in a particular way for a particular sound, with the piano, you need to be able to use the pedals correctly when playing a piece of music to get the correct effect, with guitar, you need to be shown chords..and so on.

Fine if the child can pick all this up themselves but sometimes they can't. I fear that it might make musically gifted kids give up if they can't get proper tuition and thus lose out on something brilliant. Not good.

Oh, Gove... right.

I couldn't believe it when I read this news piece. Has it occurred to any of them that the people who are a danger to the kids are never going to be that way towards them in public anyway? Bloody farcical.

These rules haven't come into force out of nowhere. It's parents who've done this. The Government don't just make these things up off the top of their heads. I bet many times it's almost forced upon them by politically correct parents who read a story about a paedophile and demand the rules be changed "just incase" something happens to one of their own. If we went by "just incase" all the time we'd never let the kids out the door. In fact we'd probably never have them seeing as a lot of the time it's the parents that do the abusing. By the time my kids started school they knew about right and wrong (even though they still do wrong many many times) and what was acceptable. We have to put some trust in teachers or there's no point sending our kids to school. I don't want continuous phone calls asking if they can put a plaster on one of mine (seeing as I seem to have the clumsiest kids in the world)

Simply not true I'm afraid, a simple google search will bring up plenty of cases of sexual abuse by music teachers including for e.g. where sexual assaults took place in front of others and also where these assaults took place under the 'pretence' of demonstrating breathing exercises etc. sometimes as part of the grooming process, which then lead on to much more serious sexual abuse. 
Whilst I don't agree with an absolute 'no-touch' teaching culture, I do think that there needs to be guidelines clearly setting out what is and isn't acceptable and under what circumstances. Not that that necessarily stops the child sex offender, but it does provide a clear framework so children are empowered to make choices about touching and are clear about when something is wrong and when to report it, also teachers are clear about the potential consequences when they step outside of those guidelines.
Whilst I agree with many of the comments above and think it would be a v v sad day if teachers could not hug a distressed child who wants that comfort, or demonstrate a technique in music or PE etc. if the child is comfortable with that, (like adults, some of us would be, some would not!) Most of the touching is, of course, entirely innocent but I do think that we also need to be mindful that many a PE and music teacher who has sexually offended against children has exploited the fact that they use touch in their teaching methods and then try to pass this off as 'innocent' touching....Under those circumstances, even those children who have been taught what is 'right and wrong' and about 'good and bad' touches can be confused/vulnerable.

 Just last night I was telling Mr Cinds a music teacher story, and how to this day if I saw her I would still love to punch her in the face.  Maybe we should start a splinter 'music teacher' thread 

I have to agree with Super here....My mother-in-law was sexually assaulted by a music teacher when she was at school under the pretext of choir practise...

Friggin eck I knew it went on with some P.E. teachers but have never heard of music teachers doing it.

There's plenty Karma...If you are a teacher with a motivation to sexually offend against children then it makes sense to choose to teach a subject like music or PE where the boundaries re touching are more blurred, you have increased opportunities for 1:1contact, work away from the classroom, 'extra-curricular' activities and trips/overnight stays etc.
BTW, I'm not saying by a v v long way that many music or PE teachers have a sexual interest in children, just that, for those who have, they have increased opportunities to offend

I worry about ballet class.
How on earth, I wonder, can my position be corrected if my teacher cannot touch me.
I may never become a world class dancer.


Super - thanks for uncovering the videos giving advice to teachers. 
After viewing I must say I remain utterly unconvinced. I never knew that amazingly dramatic improvement could be made simply by being stared at! 


Deep in my heart of hearts   (no, not so deep actually) my gut tells me that not being touched is very negative.